Accra, Oct. 23, GNA – The Alliance for
Accountable Governance (AFAG) said the Nation Builders Corps (NaBCo) is a
thoughtful initiative by the Government, aimed at addressing the unemployment
situation in the country.
AFAG said it supported the deliberate effort
of the Government and the President’s vision to create jobs for the unemployed
graduates.
A statement from AFAG, and copied to the Ghana
News Agency, said: “Like many other social intervention programmes, the NaBCo
concept has the propensity to resolve the socio-economic challenges facing the
youth in the country.”
The statement said the initiative would
complement public sector delivery in the agriculture, education, health,
technology and governance sectors as well as drive revenue mobilisation and
collection.
It said it would afford graduates the opportunity
to earn a decent income and, at the same time, expose them to the world of work
while improving their skills and employability in the module they found
themselves.
“NABCo is a fantastic short term solution to
youth unemployment. It is doing for graduates what the Youth Employment Agency
(YEA) is doing for unskilled labour where young people between the ages of 15
to 35 years go through skills training and internship modules to transit from
being unemployed to employed,” the statement said.
It urged government to forge ahead and always
consider ways of improving upon the NaBCo as it works towards creating more
lasting employment opportunities for the youth.
It said government must also engage the
private sector and define a source of funding for the programme, independent of
the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF), adding that the reliance on the DACF
stifled district assemblies’ development programmes.
It urged government to, as matter of national
priority, develop a national youth employment policy.
It suggested that government ought to look for
a robust economic foundation to ensure sustainable job creation for the youth,
which should include the reduction of taxes on businesses.
The statement said AFGA was confident that the
Government was capable of meeting this challenge as the private sector-led
employment enhanced sustainable job creation.
GNA