The NDC opposition to a government plan to hire 100,000 unemployed graduates has been criticized as a “partisan play around people’s real problem”.
The NDC has said the government program ‘Nation Builders Corps’ (NABco) offers no new plan to create jobs but a duplication of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA).
It has also said the GHS700 salary for the employees ridicules the value of a tertiary level certificate.
But the NYA in a statement remarked that “Ghanaians must be worried that those who did little to help unemployed youths are doing more to belittle those who are actually helping”.
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The NYA says NABco would help unemployed graduates in areas like education, health and agriculture gather working experience private employers demand before hiring.
“This is why it cannot be permanent. Government is solving the problem of work experience so graduates can improve their chances of getting improved offers from the private sector”, the statement said.
The NYA said unemployment ridicules a graduate’s certificate, not 700 Ghana cedis.
The statement signed by its CEO, Emmanuel Asigri, said comments by opposition MPs and former government appointees must be measured and sensitive because unemployment is not “a political jabbing opportunity by a real problem facing Ghana’s youth”.
The NYA said the job provision and creation record of the former government should impress on its appointees and MPs “to be very measured in its comments if it finds patriotic bi-partisan support a hard thing to do”.
“It is no longer a partisan talking point to say some governments are good at destroying what other governments are good at creating. This is now a pattern of Ghana’s politics.”
The NDC which was in government between 2009 and 2016 was criticised for bankrupting the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) created under the John Kufuor regime to provide Ghana’s first ever government health insurance for citizens.
The National Youth Employment Program, an attempt to reduce unemployment which was considered a national security threat, was plunged into scandals after the NDC government took over.
The Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) was also ridiculed by the NDC while in opposition although in government, it was a popular example of efforts to improve lives of the vulnerable.
Emmanuel Asigri explained that if the government has found it prudent to roll out the Nation Builders Corp it is because over the last nine years, the country appeared to be run by a “Nation Destroyers Corp”.
“The best achievement under the previous government was the creation of an online job search engine just like jobberman or jobsinghana”.
In November 2016, Labour Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, unveiled an online job portal called Ghana Labour Market Information Systems (GLMIS).
It was launched a month to the general elections in December.
