The Tamale Central legislator has described government’s newly launched programme, the Nation Builders Corps (NABco) as an inefficient allocation of scarce social resources.

Inusah Fuseini believes the Akufo-Addo government should rather concentrate its efforts at creating opportunities for the private sector to expand so as to create the necessary jobs.

He told Samsom Lardy Anyenini on Joy FM/MultiTV’s news analysis programme, Newsfile, Saturday, that the tertiary institutions are already training people and providing them with the knowledge and skill set needed for the job market.

The former Lands Minister said the training provided by tertiary institutions frees the government to invest the nation's scarce resources elsewhere rather than spending wasting it to train graduates.

His comment follows the launch on May Day of the NABCO programme which is expected to employ some 100,000 people to assist the public sector.

The programme, according to President Akufo-Addo is expected to deliver jobs in prioritized areas defined under seven modules: Educate Ghana, Heal Ghana, Feed Ghana, Revenue Ghana, Digitise Ghana, Enterprise Ghana and Civic Ghana.

President Akufo-Addo

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But the lawmaker said, “I have a fundamental problem with and difficulty in understanding the conceptual basis for this program. I think it is simply part of the inefficiencies of government."

“Government is clearly allocating our resources poorly and thereby taking on board too much expenditure that might not result in any meaningful impact on the lives of the people. It might get diverted from its desire to create that prosperity,” he added.

Mr Fuseini argues that when the private sector is given the needed boost to grow with an increase in demand for goods and services for consumption to equal expenditure, then the economy will expand for employment to be created.      

According to him, the NABco programme is not employment but a stop-gap measure and “a welfare scheme to create the impression that government is doing something about the unemployment situation”.

He said it is time a hard look is taken to one of government’s flagship programme to create jobs as it is a duplication of the functions of some established bodies in the public sector.

Kofi Bentil

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“No private sector institution will employ any graduate without taking them through training. So, you need to instil the core values of the institution into the trainees and get them to sync with the work attitude of the institutions,” he noted.

Mr Fuseini, therefore, tasked NABco to show the skill sets and values it will instil into the graduates that will fit squarely into the seven models.

The former minister further chastised the application process which he described as a façade.

The President had said every constituency has a stated allocation out of the 100,000 placements for adequate national and regional balance, but Mr Fuseini said, the government was only going to reward its people through the selection process.

He also wants to know how NABco is going to dovetail into the need to get graduates employed each year they finish their courses from the various tertiary institution. 

Contributing to the discussion, the Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, said the implemntation of NABco is, to a large extent, a political gimmick.

“A year from now, we will come to analyse the successes or failure of [NABCO]. In this country, we have had more than ten of these efforts: we’ve had GYEEDA, we’ve had NYEP becoming now YEA, we’ve had LESDEP, YESDEC, we’ve had YESP, we’ve had GEBSS, YCCES, we’ve had Youth in Agricultural Programme…none of these have anything to show. Point me one major success story," he stated.