Government on course to solving graduate unemployment - Bawumia

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia says the Government is on the right path towards solving graduate unemployment and bringing hope and prosperity to all Ghanaians.

He said the Government took over power at a time when there was dwindling economic fortunes, with increasing youth unemployment due to poor economic management.

“However, the President Akufo-Addo-led Government took the bull by the horn and took bold interventions, including the creation of the Nation Builders Corps (NaBCo) to offer employment to about 100,000 unemployed graduates, who would have naturally joined the Graduate Unemployment Association,” he said.

Vice President Bawumia said this at the closing ceremony of the one-year anniversary of the NABCO in Accra on Friday.

Additionally, he said, about 350,000 unemployed Ghanaians, including teachers, nurses, police and other security personnel were recruited into the Public Sector within the last two-and-half years as a sources of livelihood and to enhance productivity.

More so the Government had managed to stabilise the macro-economy with the year-on-year inflation dropping from 15.4 per cent in 2016 to the current figure of 7.6 per cent, which is the lowest since 1992.

There had also been positive balance of trade, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increasing from 3.6 in 2016 to over eight per cent in 2018, while the nation witnessed exponential increase in foreign reserves all geared towards improving the economy.

Vice President Bawumia also enumerated a number of digital technology initiatives including the paperless ports system, e-business registration, e-procurement processes, smart driver’s licensing regime, digital property addressing system, mobile money interoperability payment system, and the ongoing national identification system to ease business transactions.

On Government’s flagship industrial and social initiatives, Dr Bawumia mentioned the Planting for Food and Jobs, Rearing for Exports and Rural Development, One-District, One-Factory, One-District One Warehouse and the Free Senior High School, which has benefitted 1.2 million students with about three billion Ghana cedis spent on the Policy.

The Vice President noted that all these were clear testimony that the President Akufo-Addo-led Government was on course in creating a prosperous nation and urged all well-meaning Ghanaians to support a worthy cause.

Dr Ibrahim Anyars, the Chief Executive Officer of NaBCo, in brief remarks, said about 11,000 beneficiaries had already secured permanent employment into some of the implementing partner organisations.

Thus the trainees had contributed GHc500,000 in cash donation to support some deprived communities and organisations in the country, as their widow’s mite to the society.

The week-long anniversary was on the theme: “Investing in the Youth: Securing our Future through Opportunities for Work and Nation Building”, which involves clean-up campaigns, donation to deprived communities as well as a conference and career fair.

NaBCo Skills and Talent Training Academy (NSTA) was unveiled by the President on Thursday, October 17, to provide career training and requisite skills for the trainees for the job market, as they prepare to exit the scheme within three years.

The initiative is a government programme to address graduate unemployment and focus on solving public sector challenges in the areas of health, education, agriculture and technology and drive revenue mobilisation efforts.