Vice President Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia on Saturday said graduates, engaged under the Nation Builders Corp would start work in August this year as part of measures to minimise the spate of unemployment in the country.
He said the New Patriotic Party led administration under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was only 18 months old in office and had fulfilled some of its promises made to Ghanaians prior to the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections, which youth engagement was included.
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Dr Bawumia said this when he paid courtesy call on the Regent and people of the Navrongo Traditional Council in the Upper East Region, which was the 9th Region of his nationwide tour.
The Vice President, who later joined his fellow Muslims to offer prayers at the Navrongo Central Mosque, was accompanied by Alhaji Boniface Abubakar Sadique, the Minister for Inner-City and Zongo Development, Mr Rockson Ayine Bukari, the Upper East Regional Minister, Municipal and District Chief Executives, some party executives and government officials.
He said: “We are praying because we know that with God everything is possible and without God nothing is possible, so we are trying to make sure that we live by the words of His Excellency Nana Akuffo-Addo that the battle is the Lord’s.”
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Dr Bawumia said 1,000 graduates would be hired and distributed across every constituency, and added that “Navrongo for example will not get less than four hundred graduates this year. They will be hired and they will start work this year.”
He noted that it was better for the unemployed graduates to be engaged to work than to allow them to stay at home on the pretext that government cannot provide jobs, and further disclosed that government would hire 80,000 non-graduates or non-certificate holders onto the youth employment scheme, adding, “Nana Akuffo-Addo is delivering,”.
According to the Vice President, a number of farmers had access to fertilizers and seeds under the “Planting for Food and Jobs” programme, and said government was working hard to ensure that the “One Village, One Dam” programme started soon.
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“We have awarded the contracts for the programme and you would see a lot of dams been constructed very soon all across the three Northern Regions.”
Dr Bawumia said government had established the Northern Development Authorities for each of the three Regions of the North, and would inaugurate the Board on Monday. He therefore urged the Chief Executive Officer and his Deputy to work hard to ensure that all constituencies reaped the benefits of the different authorities.
“They would be the vehicles through which we will channel the one million dollar per constituency to see the various projects being implemented. We have been 18 months in office, and you will agree that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is a President who keeps his words.”
Ambassador Francis Bagyei Kelugu, Head of the family of the late Navro Pio, thanked the Vice President and his entourage for the visit, the support and interest government had shown in the funeral arrangement of the late chief, Pe Dr Augustine Atudiku Balinia Adda, who died on September 13, 2015.
He said the funeral of the late Chief would be performed on June 19, and a new Chief would be installed on July 15 this year.
