President Nana Akufo-Addo has announced the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) will recruit 80,000 people who hold certificates lower than degrees next year.

This he said, is part of the government’s agenda to reduce the unemployment rates in the country.

He was speaking in the Ashanti Regional capital, Kumasi, where he launched the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) which will see 100,000 graduates employed in various sectors of the economy.

Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia recently explained the NABCO Programme: “You have 7 modules that are going to be outdoored: The Feed Ghana module where you want to have people who would go in as agric extension officers to help our farmers. You have the Educate Ghana module where we want people to help in our High schools for teaching especially science and mathematics.

"The Revenue Ghana module will take graduates into the Ghana Revenue Authority to help in the collection of revenue. You have the Heal Ghana module where we will employ nurses who have been sitting at home for years without jobs; we will be finding them space in the Heal Ghana module.”

He continued: “We will have the Enterprise Ghana module where you will assign graduates to various private sector enterprises for jobs and skills training as well as development. Then you have the Digitise Ghana module where graduates will be sent to the IT sector for the Digital Ghana agenda, the transformation agenda, where they will be attached to the NIA [National Identification Authority] or to the Ghana Post or to the Births and Deaths Registry or to the Land Registry. They will be doing digitisation work for this country.

“We also have the Governance Ghana module where people will be attached to various local authorities.

“We are beginning this and this year by the grace of God we will be recruiting 100,000 graduates.”

The government has been roundly criticized, especially by the opposition National Democratic Congress over the NABCO policy.

They say the policy is not only unsustainable but also discriminatory – non-degree holders have not been given a chance.

In response to this, the president said the YEA will recruit 80,000 non-degree holders under its various modules next year.