Govt told gargantuan lie about NABCO financing – Murtala

Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Ibrahim Mohammed Mutala, has said the government peddled falsehood about the financing arrangement for the Nation Builders Corps Initiative (NABCO).

He described the financing claim by the government as a ‘gargantuan lie.’

NABCO was launched by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Tuesday, 1st May, 2018.

Mr Akufo-Addo while launching the programme was confident that by the time NABCO trainees exited scheme “the requisite work readiness skills and experience, often deemed a barrier to their employment as fresh graduates, would have been resolved.”

According to President Akufo-Addo, “NABCO will be the vehicle to deliver one hundred thousand (100,000) 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.”

Explaining the rationale for the establishment of the Corps, President Akufo-Addo noted that the grim story of youth unemployment had been a tragic part of the lives of Ghanaians for far too long in Ghana.

The situation he said was worsened by the ban placed on public sector employment by the International Monetary Fund at the time.

“I gave an indication that a new employment scheme will be launched to tackle the issue of the growing numbers of graduates exiting our tertiary institutions with no job placements in sight,” he said.

NABCO’s central focus, the President said, was create employment avenues and opportunities for young people who hold diplomas or degrees from accredited tertiary institutions, adding that “NABCO will enhance the dignity and self-esteem of our graduates, and will also present them with the added benefit of efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of some essential public services.”

But speaking on the Sunrise show on 3FM with Alfred Ocansey on Wednesday January 5, Murtala Ibrahim Mohammed who is also a former Deputy Minister of Trade indicated that “They said they were providing 100,000 jobs. Just do the arithmetic and multiply 100,000 by 700 cedis because we were told that each beneficiary was being payed 700 cedis.

“100,000 by 700 cedis will give you 70million a month. Multiply 70million by 12, that is a year, that will give you 840million so you don’t need Archimedes to rise from his tomb to tell you that they were lying to the people of this country.

“When I raised the issue they gave a response. They said it could be taken care of in the mid year budget for 2018. If salary alone, allowances alone of 100,000 within a year was going to cost the government some 840m, yet they had only 400million in the budget and that 400million included the establishment regional and district offices and the manpower and the logistics.

“Now they said it would take care of it in the mid year budget, that was the response. I challenge you to go and look at the mid year budget for 2018 NABCO was not there. So this has been the gargantuan lie told to the people of this country.”