“A year from now, we will come to analyse the successes or failure of NaBCO. In this country, we have had more than ten of these efforts: we’ve had GYEEDA, we’ve had NYEP becoming now YEA, we’ve had LESDEP, YESDEC, we’ve had YESP, we’ve had GEBSS, YCCES, we’ve had Youth in Agricultural Programme…none of these have anything to show,” asserts Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil.
His remarks were in reaction to the various controversies surrounding the Nation Builders Corps (NaBCo) initiative.
The project which was launched a few days ago by President Akufo-Addo, is aimed at addressing graduate unemployment in the country.
It has been explained that the central objective of the new programme unlike the youth employment programme is to engage the raw talents of unemployed graduates and equip them with skills through a process of value addition and training.
However, some members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) are skeptical about this initiative; some describe it as ‘419’.
Reacting to this on MultiTV/Joy FM’s Newsfile on Saturday, Mr Bentil said such ‘political programmes’ are meant to show that the government in power is doing something about unemployment issues in the country.
“A year from now, we will come to analyse the successes or failure of…(NaBCo). In this country, we have had more than ten of these efforts: we’ve had GYEEDA, we’ve had NYEP becoming now YEA, we’ve had LESDEP, YESDEC, we’ve had YESP, we’ve had GEBSS, YCCES, we’ve had Youth in Agricultural Programme…none of these have anything to show.
Point me one major success story…And when you calculate the nine years of these programmes and the tens and millions of dollars that we’ve spent on these things, you will come to appreciate when I say it is a political programme intended to show that the present government, or whichever government, is in power is doing something about the problem. My worry is whether we are going to get value for money.
And my other worry is the potential negative effects of some of these programmes. The first problem is inflation. You will destabilise your macroeconomic stability when you pump so much money behind the unproductive activity. I worry about that,” he said.
peacefmonline
