All trainees under the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) will be given full employment by the government after completing the three-year training program.
This is according to a release from the Headquarters of the program which has also reversed earlier moves for the trainees to leave various places of engagement after completing the program.
“Following a high-level stakeholder meeting with the lead NABCO Module Implementation Partners (MIPs) led by His Excellency the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana and the Honorable Chief of Staff, all NABCO trainees are required to remain at post.”
The statement comes only days after trainees had been told to go on mandatory leave in preparation to get rid of them from the program after three years of training.
Announcements about the plans by the Akufo Addo administration to discard them had led to unease among trainees who would have had to come into the real world and hunt for jobs that do not exist.
Apparently, the Akufo-Addo government, fearing backlash over the fact that it was breaking its promise to absorb NABCO trainees into full employment after their training, beat a retreat, even though Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has only recently advised university graduates to stop expecting the government to give them jobs.
All indications are that this move, which is stuffing an already over-stuffed public sector with graduates, is a political move for votes.
According to critics, Vice President Bawumia’s strategic placement as the chief benefactor of the move is to position him for favourable review in the next elections in 2024, where he is being tipped to lead the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).
And so, in addition to absorbing this first batch of 100,000 graduates into state jobs, the government has announced that the next batch of NABCO trainees will be marshalled again, next year.
It remains to be seen how long the government can continue absorbing university graduates into the public sector before the 70% of government revenue going into paying public sector salaries, escalates to 90%.