Standard Authority NABCO Trainees Asked To Prepare For Mandatory Leave

The Ghana Standards Authority has notified all Nation Builders Corps trainees with it to prepare to exit.

A notice issued on 29 October 2021, informed the trainees that the time has come for them to exit and that as part of the process, they are to take a two-week mandatory leave.

“As part of the exit plan of the NABCO program which ends this month, we write to inform all NABCO trainees to proceed on two-week mandatory leave effective Monday, 2021-11-01 to 2021-11-15. This Mandatory leave has become necessary for Management in consultation with the National NABCO Secretariat to plan and strategize on retaining trainees for the services of the Authority,” the marching order reads.

The statement is signed by one Douglas Nii Teiko Annan.

The Nation Builders Corps, also known as N.A.B.C.O is an initiative by the Akufo Addo administration to provide jobs to unemployed post-secondary school graduates (graduates of universities, training colleges, etc.).

The initiative aims to solve various social problems in both private and public sectors, and to build worker skills to promote economic growth. Trainees of this flagship program are given monthly stipends.

In August 2019, as a result of the closure of several non-performing banks by the Bank of Ghana, trainees whose stipends were paid onto GN Bank’s E-zwich cards did not receive their stipends. 

Trainees had not been paid nine months on. Although NABCO has kept many unemployed graduates in temporary employment, monthly stipends have become an issue for trainees, some of whom still have arrears to be paid to them.