You never created 2.1 million jobs; NABCO was 'stopgap' measure - Osman Ayariga

The Acting CEO of the National Youth Authority cum Deputy National Youth Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Osman Ayariga, has said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) under Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo never created 2.1 million jobs as it claimed to have done.

During a panel discussion on Metro TV's Good Morning Ghana on May 6, 2025, and monitored by GhanaWeb, Ayariga dismissed the Akufo-Addo government’s job creation figures as inflated and misleading.

He argued that the flagship Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) initiative, often cited by the NPP as a key employment program, does not constitute real or sustainable jobs, adding that it failed to transition participants into permanent roles.

“You never created 2.1 million jobs. NABCO was no job. Many NABCO beneficiaries were left without permanent employment after the program ended. It is as a stopgap initiative rather than a long-term solution to youth unemployment,” he indicated.

That transition, he argued, never fully materialised, leaving many beneficiaries unemployed once the scheme ended.

The Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) program in Ghana was launched on May 1, 2018, by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

The Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) programme, was to employ, in that year alone, 100,000 young men and women to assist in the public sector service delivery needs of the country.

NABCO was the vehicle to deliver jobs in seven (7) prioritised areas, defined as the following modules: Educate Ghana; Heal Ghana; Feed Ghana; Revenue Ghana; Digitise Ghana; Enterprise Ghana; and Civic Ghana.

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