President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo yesterday inducted the first batch of 100,000 personnel into the government's flagship Nation Builders Corp NaBco programme and urged them to work hard to justify the investment in the programme.
"You must bear in mind that government is investing GH¢3billion of tax payers' money into this programme. Your monthly stipends of GH¢700 is not free money and you must earn every pesewa of it through hard work and dedication," he said.
The induction ceremony, which was held at the Independence Square in Accra, was attended by thousands of NaBco personnel and a section of the public.
The purpose of the programme was to engage raw graduates from accredited tertiary institutions and equip them with skills to make them employable after their training.
The programme has seven modules, that is, Educate Ghana, Revenue Ghana, Heal Ghana, Enterprise Ghana, Digitise Ghana, Feed Ghana and Civic Ghana.
President Akufo-Addo said the programme had been ridiculed with pessimistic, cynical and skeptical comments with some people going to the extent of urging graduates not to register for the programme.
He, therefore, commended the 100,000 graduates who defied the loud cries of the cynics, rose to the challenge, and took part in the rigorous selection process.
"I salute all of you for taking this innovative step to lay the foundation for your future careers and at the same time contribute your quota to growth and development of the nation," he said and urged the personnel to assist in the realisation of government's vision of building an educated population and an industrialised and well managed economy.
After three years, he said the NaBco trainees would be ready to transition into permanent work and indicated that after the programme, the government would have addressed the issues that had kept them out of the labour market, in spite of their education.
"We are planting the seeds to the growth for our future. I am in no doubt that NaBco will succeed," he said and noted that the scheme had clearly defined exit routes to enable the personnel transition into the world of work.
President Akufo-Addo said the public sector would be given the opportunity to retain personnel who justified themselves after their three-year stay, while others would be given entrepreneurial training.
He urged the personnel to be dutiful and productive in the areas they had been assigned and entreated them to live with the values of punctuality, integrity and hard work.
President Akufo-Addo appealed to the public to accept the personnel who would be working in the towns, villages, constituencies, districts and other critical sectors of the economy and commended his Vice, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, whose hard work had resulted in the smooth take off of the programme.
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