General News of Tuesday, 15 January 2019

Source: thefinderonline.com

NABCo resolves challenges of 9,235 beneficiaries

Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Information Minister

A total of 9,235 beneficiaries out of the 18,001 beneficiaries of the Nation Builder’s Corps (NABCo) programme who did not receive their stipends for various reasons will receive it this week.

This is because managers of the programme have finished resolving the challenges it encountered with processing of stipends.

The remaining 8,766 who still have outstanding data issues are encouraged to correct their data as requested of them in messages sent to them so they can be paid as soon as possible.

Information Minister Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah announced this in the Eastern Regional capital Koforidua yesterday.

It will be recalled that in the past week, some beneficiaries have complained of not receiving their monthly stipend of GH?700 even as their colleagues on the same programme had received theirs.

77,907 Beneficiaries on NABCO

The Information Minister explained that NABCo stipends for 2018 were fully funded in the 2018 budget and payments commenced for some 77,907 beneficiaries.
However, some 18,001 beneficiaries unfortunately did not receive their stipends for various reasons.

Payment halted to correct data sets

Oppong-Nkrumah stated that the difficulties encountered called for a halt in further processing of the payroll for the data sets to be corrected.

Messages sent to beneficiaries to correct data

He explained that the NABCo Secretariat sent messages to beneficiaries to correct their data for it to be rekeyed into the system.

9,235 Beneficiaries to receive stipend this week

Consequently, 9,235 beneficiaries have now corrected their data and thus will be paid this week.

December and regular stipends

The Information Minister said December and regular stipends are also programmed to be paid immediately afterwards.

2,105 Beneficiaries on other govt programmes
He announced that some 2,105 have been found to be already employed on other government programmes such as Youth Employment Agency (YEA), National Service Scheme (NSS), Forestry Commission Payroll, Ministry of Health (MoH) Nursing Training Institutions or already employed in other sectors.
He stated that NABCo Secretariat intends to exit such persons from the programme.

1,098 Give NABCo exit notice

Oppong-Nkrumah announced that since October 2018, a total of 1,098 beneficiaries have also notified the secretariat of their intention to exit to other employment schemes.

“These voluntary exits are expected to continue as government continues to recruit into the public services.

“This will create more vacancies on the NABCo roll and will give the secretariat room to onboard persons who are on the waiting list and have not been placed yet.
“It is for this reason that even after placing the first about 100,000 beneficiaries, others were left on a waiting list.

“Those on this waiting list who have not been placed may be placed as vacancies open up based on the aforementioned reasons.

“Being on the waiting list or even being placed does not mean a beneficiary is bonded as some have speculated. Entry onto and exit from the programme is purely voluntary.

“NABCo encourages beneficiaries who desire to stay on the waiting list to indicate same on the NABCO recruitment platform online,” he stated.