NABCO BENEFICIARIES IN U/E ATTEND CAREER FAIR

Several hundreds of beneficiaries under the New Patriotic Party’s [NPP] government’s stop-gap employment programme, the Nation Builders’ Corps [NABCO], have received tutoring for their possible retention by user-institutions, skills building to help them start their own businesses and a guide on career opportunities. The beneficiaries were drawn from across all the 15 Municipal and District Assemblies in the Upper East Region.

 

A Cross Section of Beneficiaries at the Fair

The one-day event held in the region’s capital of Bolgatanga, signaled the continuation of the regional road shows started in 2019 in the Bono Region of Ghana, by authorities of NABCO to prepare the about 100,000 beneficiaries nationwide for their eventual exit into the world of work or job creation. Already, some 11 regions have hosted the career fairs in the course of 2019. Under the NABCO engagements, a beneficiary is enrolled onto one of the seven modules and expected to exit in a period of 36 months.

These modules include Educate Ghana, Heal Ghana, Digitse Ghana, Feed Ghana, Revenue Ghana, Civic Ghana and Enterprise Ghana.

Upper East Regional Minister Hon. Tangoba Abayage in her address to open the career fair, described the NABCO intervention as a “noble idea which came at a time unemployment had threatened the very foundation of security in Ghana”. She observed that of an estimated 70,000 youth who graduate from the country’s tertiary institutions annually, only 10 percent of them could secure some decent employment.

Hon. Tangoba Abayage, UE-RM speaking at the event

Hon. Tangoba remarked that, President Nana Akufo-Addo who had then taken the reigns of power, immediately understood the urgency of the situation and thus, the establishment of NABCO, which has not only given some relief to graduates and their immediate families, but also beefed up staff numbers at the various user-agencies. She disclosed that her region alone had a total of 3,805 youth including a good representation of both males and females as well as persons with disabilities all benefiting and working at various organisations.

She also revealed that in just about three years, the government had created some 350,000 jobs in the public sector whilst it continues to create the requisite enabling environment for entrepreneurial development through the President’s Business Support Programme. She entreated the NABCO beneficiaries to strive to wean themselves off the intervention challenging themselves to achieve their natural feats and leading life to the full through the incubation and execution of business ideas with high prospects.

The NABCO Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Anyars Ibrahim in his remarks to the beneficiaries said it was the ultimate objective of his outfit to see each beneficiary transition into jobs where they were being groomed or start and run their own businesses thereby, employing several of their peers. He charged the beneficiaries to be hard working and meticulous at their various work places as such attributes would endear them to the employing authorities at the apex of the user agencies.

 

CEO of NABCO, Dr. Anyars Ibrahim

Dr. Anyars in an interview with the media on the sidelines of the fair, revealed that during the 1^st Anniversary of NABCO some time ago, the President launched a learning platform to make it easier for NABCO trainees to access the necessary skills and talent to assist them have a smooth exit from the programme over a three-year period. He said as a consequence, his administration had teamed up with career guidance experts and other successful business sector players to help impart knowledge to beneficiaries and give them a clear career path to guide their exit.

The NABCO Boss noted that aside the jobs offered the beneficiaries, the intervention in itself was a work-and-learning tool that placed the trainees in the best position to learn on the job with their supervisors as guides which should then make them ready candidates for intake into such places or institutions of work. He said it was also expected that many of them will also be triggered at a point to envisage and develop some entrepreneurial skills that would urge them to start something on their own.

According to Dr. Anyars, NABCO had made available thousands of graduate-level jobs to a multitude of the youth across the country majority of whom, would have migrated to the south of Ghana in search of the proverbial “greener pastures” as had been the case some years ago under past governments.  He conceded that from the implementation stages of the programme, there were a few challenges such as data issues and payment issues but said, with strong commitment from his team and the financial backing of government, such obstacles had been cleared and today, NABCO had become a success story to tell.

Meanwhile, Upper East Regional Coordinator of NABCO, Mr. Jambeidu Issahaku Khan at the start of the day’s proceedings conveyed appreciation of the beneficiaries of the intervention to government noting that, NABCO had brought a big relief to a chunk of the hitherto, unemployed youth in the region. He said appreciating government was very appropriate because in other countries or jurisdictions across the world, trainees or interns under modules such as NABCO rather pay to enroll.