Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, Health Minister
The Ministry of Health has told unposted nurses that they will not be forced to be recruited under the yet to be launched Nation Builders Corps (NABCO).
The programme which is a major government policy to cut down on the surging unemployment in the country will be launched by President Akufo-Addo on May 1.
Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has hinted the programme aims to recruit about hundred thousand youth including some 10,000 nurses.
“We are embarking on a new programme that the President is going to launch on May Day, and it is targeted at graduate unemployment. It is called the Nation Builders Corps and it is to supplement all the other programmes run by the Youth Employment Agency and the others. The Nation Builders Corps is going to be hiring graduates.
“We are beginning this and this year by the grace of God we will be recruiting 100,000 graduates. “This is a major initiative that will be launched on May 1st, and for those who have completed their national service recruitment will start on that day online,” Dr. Bawumia noted at the 22nd Congregation of the University of Education, Winneba over the weekend.
But some unposted nurses are agitating against the move, claiming it will leave them worst off since they will not receive equal salaries with their colleagues who are working under the Ghana Health Service.
But speaking to Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Wednesday, the spokesperson for the health ministry Robert Cudjoe said the unposted nurses will not be enrolled in the programme under compulsion.
“We are in the process of recruiting some nurses. If you are a nurse and you don’t want to be part of the Nation Builders Corps, it is your right. If you don’t want it as a nurse, you’ll just stay behind. As a nation, we cannot continue to agitate on every move. Day in and day out, there are some agitations going on somewhere when it comes to the Health Front”.
