Reasons why the Nation Builders’ Corps may not work in Ghana

The Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) programme is a government initiative to address graduate unemployment to solve social problems.

The focus of the Nation Builders Corps will be solving public service delivery in health, education, agriculture, technology, governance and drive revenue mobilization and collection.

The Nation Builders Corps recognizes the role played by other pathways that currently exist under various government institutions and agencies. In a sense, NABCO ultimately offers a convergence for the employment initiatives landscape.

Days after the launch of the Nation Builders Corps by President Akufo-Addo, there have been several attacks and counter-attacks on the initiative by politicians, policy think-tanks amongst others on the feasibility of the Nation Builders Corps.

Irrespective of the fact that government of Ghana has given the assurance that it is ready to deploy trainees to begin the programme on August 2018, several Ghanaian citizens including policy think-tanks and politicians are of the view that the Nation Builders Corps is an unnecessary initiative.

Prime News Ghana presents a series of views on why the Nation Builders’ Corps may not work in Ghana.

Franklin Cudjoe- President of IMANI Ghana.

Policy think-tank, IMANI Ghana, is of the view that government’s decision to set up what it calls a Nation Builders Corps (NBC), which seeks to employ over 100,000 graduates with a budgetary allocation of Ghc600 million, is just a duplication of the mandate of the National Service Scheme.

According to the think-tank, although the mode of financing the programme has not yet been put out, the GHc600 million set aside to pay wages of graduates who would be captured under the NBC is too much and a “waste of money.”

President of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe, in an interview on the Citi FM said the amount can be pumped into the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NIEP) or better still the agricultural sector.

“We are yet to see the details of the financing arrangement, but what we’ve seen so far unfortunately may be going to a lot of sectors that have been in existence long ago. It means that if people are going to be employed to take care of our healthcare institutions, I don’t know if they will be doing extensive services in education because that has also been mentioned and revenue generation which have all not been clearly defined. It appears to us that these are not necessarily different from what the national service really does.”

“So, in a way, we were thinking that to spend a hefty sum of almost GHc600 million to create jobs that are transient jobs basically, and not necessarily adding to the productive capabilities of the country, looks as if it is a waste of money,” Mr. Cudjoe added.

Kofi Bentil - Vice President of Policy think tank IMANI Africa

The Vice President of Policy think-tank IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil says the newly introduced Nation Builders Corps – NABCO will immensely affect Ghana's economy negatively.
Speaking on Joy FM’s News File on May 5, 2018, Kofi Bentil vehemently opposed the notion that NABCO will solve the huge unemployment problem that has bedevillled Ghana.

“The first problem is inflation, you’ll destabilize your microeconomic stability when you pump so much money behind unproductive activities, I worry about that. And then you have the risk…look at what happened to the GYEEDAs, the YEAs, you have so much money going into a certain place, things are not very well defined and people are supposed to be trained. This is not new, you could have just taken this and slammed it straight into the YEA.

“Again, let’s be clear, this is a purely political programme. There’s no economics to it, there’s no social aspect to it that’s to say we’re doing something as the people in power today to make sure that we’re seen to be alleviating the plight of our youth who face unemployment. But let’s be clear, every effort aimed at attacking youth unemployment is extremely important. To that extent, therefore, this is important.”

Inusah Fuseini – Tamale Central Member of Parliament

Tamale Central Lawmaker, Inusah Fuseini has articulated that the Nation Builders Corps – NABCO is nothing but an inefficient allocation of scarce social resources.

According to the lawmaker, the President should rather concentrate his efforts at creating opportunities for the private sector to expand so as to create the necessary jobs.

Speaking on Joy FM’s News File on May 5, 2018, the Tamale Central Lawmaker, Inusah Fuseini 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,” Inusah Fuseini noted.

He added that 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”.

George Loh- A legal practitioner

George Loh is concerned that recruitment into the Nation Builders’ Corps - NABCO will be open to abuse.

He was worried about the fact some Members of Parliament and District Chief Executives may have a hand in the recruitment process onto the scheme.

Speaking on Citi FM’s The Big Issue on May 5, 2018, he recalled that he had heard an MP saying “I sat down with my DCE and we tried to find out those who are graduates and unemployed in my area.”

“So if the MPs and the DCE’s are sitting down and deciding or trying to find out who are the graduates, it means that it NABCO is open for abuse. It means they are not going to allow the process to run the way it must run,” George Loh said.

Selorm Branttie – IMANI Africa

Selorm Branttie of IMANI Africa says his major concern is the absence of clear criteria for the eventual selection of personnel into the Nation Builders’ Corps (NABCO).

Remarking how various modules under the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) are run, Selorm Branttie lamented the fact that recruits onto such programmes are announced out of the blue.

“For some of us, we don’t see anything. All we realize is, a list is put out in the Daily Graphic or the dailies listing all the people from the districts. How some of these people are selected, we almost do not even know,”

Speaking on Citi FM’s The Big Issue on May 5, 2018, Selorm Branttie indicated that the criteria for selection onto various modules of the corps would give some indication that the government was attempting to get the best possible recruits.

However, without the selection criteria, there could be a misapplication of resources, he added.

“All this means that we may not even know if people are suited for the things they are going to be deployed into. For example, is there going to be any kind of aptitude test that is going to say that by going through this aptitude test, we know that you are computer literate… How are we even going to do a quality test of the kind of people we are trying to put in these areas or are we just trying to fill in these spaces just for filling sake? For me, these are some of the things that are very important.”

“The selection criteria is a black box. Everybody can be recruited but how do we know who is being selected and is there a public board? Is there any metric by which people are being scored? For me, that is a very big issue,” Selorm Branttie noted.

Kofi Adams - National organizer for the NDC

Kofi Adams, has said government cannot be commended for the Nations Builders Corps NABCO because it is not an innovative initiative.
According to Kofi Adams, the ruling NPP lacks the competence to create sustainable jobs.

He said, it is important that we create jobs but NABCO should not destroy an existing policy adding, ‘’NABCO will destroy permanent jobs we have in the country.’’
‘’I will not clap for a government for a thoughtless process. If you ask for details, they are unable to give answers.’’
Speaking on Rainbow radio, Kofi Adams said, "The government should have used the paid internship module under the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) for NABCO instead of creating another bureaucracy."

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