A business desk report
CITIZEN WATCH, a civil society organisation, has suggested to government to redirect the running of the current model of the Nation’s Builders Corp (NABCo) to the private sector.
According to Citizen Watch, the government cannot sustain the current model hence the need to leave it to the private sector.
“With the ongoing digitisation programme, we believe the government should reduce its labour strength, and redirect NABCo to the private sector. This would help ease pressure on the wage bill, which accounts for almost 60 percent of our total revenue,” a statement issued and signed by Francis Agbenyegah, Convener of the group, noted.
It said for the past three years, the government has spent over GH¢3 billion as wages on 100,000 NABCo recruits. This, Citizen Watch is of the view that, the monies could have built factories across the country through the support to the private sector where the youths would be in outsourcing programme and also be part of the agricultural value chain, which is more sustainable.”
The statement also reiterated that the GH¢3 billion spent on the NABCo recruits could have been channeled through the banks for the private sector to access and build factories across the country to ease the high rate of unemployment in the country.
“The GH¢3 billion could have be channeled through ADB Bank, GCB Bank, National Investment Bank among others for the incubation of SMEs to create a more sustainable income generating ventures. We need to build entrepreneurs in the country to propel growth as we keeping saying the private sector is the engine of growth,” it said.
Citizen Watch expressed gratitude to the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, for making Ghanaians aware of the true state of affairs.
It said any further expenditure on NABCo from the government without integrating them into the private sector would be a waste of resources.
“The government should realign and also programme the NABCO to be more private-sector driven,” it added.