Opinion: Why is NABCO Drifting on the Path of Camouflage?

Hardly would anyone believe otherwise, that a mere talk about the arrival of a social intervention (like NABCO) without any action to effect the intended purpose in the lives of the beneficiaries equates to a camouflage.

The president, Nana Addo, inaugurated the NABCO initiative in October, and declared the trainees “ready for work”, but we are almost in the middle of January, 2019 yet, about 40% of the trainees have not been posted.

A sizeable portion of the remaining 60% with postings were not all greeted with a suitable job role (as far as their fields of studies in tertiary school are concerned). That clearly defeats the essence of the program, because you cannot aquire and easily extrapolate the requisite skills where there is a cut between your field of study and the assigned corporate function on the job – that results in a collapse of the transition from conceptual philosophy to the practical know-how.

Many of the posted trainees have registered their perturbations, but the ensuing outlook of events seem their complaints have fallen on deaf ears. Ostensibly, the program is plausible and we applaud the president for birthing such an important initiative to address the unbearable state of graduate unemployment, a troubling menace in Ghana.
 
However, there were no proper feasibility studies concerning the readiness of the Module Implementation Partners (i.e institutions partnering NABCO to provide jobs for the trainees).

At least, the little information I have gathered so far from a reliable source suggest that correspondences were made between NABCO and the MIPs but the outcome was not encouraging, as most of the organizations didn’t express interest to engage the services of the trainees.

Besides, the commitment level to drive the key entities instituted to spearhead affairs is also zero. The lapses appear (in general) to signify lack of planning and organization.
On the other leg of the challenge, in fact, a major ordeal, it was noised abroad that the finance Minister has approved payment of stipends for November, somewhere, at the tail end of December, 2018.

This move (as we were told) was intended to sort of “reduce” the distress and put a smile on the faces of the disturbed NABCO trainees. The money was fully released for payment and all the 100, 000 trainees were expected to be paid, but as my pen is in motion on this piece, I’m part of those who haven’t received payment.

And the most painful part is, myself together with other trainees who have been posted fall on other means to finance transportation and other work-related expenses.
That of December, 2018 has not even been mentioned than to know when it’s going to be paid. There hasn’t been any communique from the outfit of the CEO, Dr Ibrahim Anyars, to keep us informed as to “the what and the why” of the issue.

My pen may run out of ink if I should touch on the mode of corporate executions by the Coordinators as a subject on its own. Taking critical digestion on the unexpected turnout of events, how does one expect us to deliver at work amidst these troubling situations?

We were gathered in a scorching sun for hours, just for the president to officially launch the program; and yet there hasn’t been any substantial progress to translate the sweet talks into action!

I believe the current happenings give us an epitome of what portends as camouflage. The president gave us sweet words and we were thrilled because he sounded with a great measure of enthusiasm and originality from the surface.

I believe in the current administration, but I don’t think any sound individual would overlook the anomalies surrounding the NABCO initiative and hail the government thereof.

We thought the sickening state of unemployment was going to get better with the introduction of the NABCO program in May, 2018, but the unfolding circumstances suggest that the menace is not out of the woods!

Regards,

Akwasi, a troubled NABCO trainee.

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