Government will need $200m annually to make NABCO succeed - ILAPI-Ghana Boss

The Executive Director of Institute for Liberty and Policy Innovation (ILAPI-Ghana), Peter Bismark says the allocated fund for the National Builders Corps (NABCO), will only last for six months.

Government is said to have allocated an amount of $100 million to absorb a total of 100,000 graduates. Each graduate is entitled to a monthly allowance of GHc700 for a contract of three years.

But reacting to the allocation made, the ILAPI-Ghana boss says the money allocated for NABCO is insufficient and will last for six months.

In a breakdown, he said, if we should divide the amount allocated for NABCO it means, each beneficiary will be entitled to a tax-free salary of GH 358 lower than what the National Service Personnel will cash at the end of the month.

He added: ‘’If government wants to pay these employees at GH500 - GH700, then he needs over $200 million each year. The initial capital would cater for only 6 months.’’

In his estimation, ‘’Each year, if government really wants this NABCO to survive it intent then he needs to get more funds. So if government is injecting this huge sum to create jobs for a small fraction of the graduates, we will obviously have high unemployment than ever.

Is this kind of employment a productive one? How sustainable is it and what is the source of the $100 million?’’ The Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) programme is a government initiative to address graduate unemployment to solve social problems.

The focus of the initiative will be solving public service delivery in health, education, agriculture, technology, governance and drive revenue mobilization and collection.



Under the programme, graduates will be trained, equipped with the necessary work tools and deployed around the country to engage in the following programmes: Educate Ghana, Heal Ghana, Feed Ghana, Revenue Ghana, Digitize Ghana, Civic Ghana and Enterprise Ghana.

The objectives of the programme are to: Provide temporary employment to unemployed graduates; Improve skills and employability for transition from programme to permanent employment; Improve public service delivery; Improve on government revenue mobilization and To provide needed infrastructure to improve access to basic public services.