The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Bongo, Mr Peter Ayinbisa Ayamga says the District Assembly's revenue has improved as a result of the work of the ‘Revenue Ghana’ personnel recruited under the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) programme.

“Before we got Revenue Ghana staff, our revenue within the District used to be about GHC8,000.00 but now that we have more hands joined to the permanent staff, we increase our revenue base from GHC 8,000.00 to GHC15, 000.00 a month.”

According to him, the programme had increased the number of revenue officers in the District who visited markets in the area to collect revenue.

Mr Ayamga, who is also the New Patriotic Party’s Parliamentary aspirant for the Bongo Constituency, said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Bongo, Upper East Region.

He said about 384 personnel in the District were recruited under NABCO, and engaged in various models including ‘Educate Ghana,’ ‘Civic Ghana,’ ‘Enterprise Ghana,’ ‘Digitize Ghana,’ Revenue Ghana,’ ‘Heal Ghana,’ and ‘Feed Ghana.’

The DCE said out of the number of personnel recruited about 60 had permanent employment after the programme and were on government’s payroll.

“Some got employment with the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture, and some also got Ghana Revenue Authority appointment.”

He said apart from the revenue generation, the NABCO programme had reduced the rate of unemployment in the District.

“In the past, we have students who had completed school for about four or five years and are sitting at home doing virtually nothing.

Today the story is different because they have something to rely on,” the DCE added.

He said NABCO created opportunities for graduates to gain experience in their chosen fields and prepared them for the job market.

“Usually, before getting any job after school, what they request of you among others is the experience; they demand two or three years working experience and if you do not have a job, how will you acquire that experience, NABCO has come to fill that gap.”

The DCE said with the introduction of the programme, personnel were trained on the job and were able to build their skills, develop their capabilities and acquire practical experiences in diverse areas within their chosen models.

“For instance, personnel working under the Revenue Ghana model in our District can have a feel of how accounting records are kept, they write receipts and even prepare monthly trial balances, and that is practically what they do as Account officers.”

Mr Ayamga said the District Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture which has inadequate staff, especially Extension Officers, got a boost with the presence of the NABCO personnel as they assisted the few Officers to teach farmers the application of fertilisers under the Planting for Food and Jobs initiative and other modern methods of farming.