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The Minority in Parliament has poured scorn on a new government initiative aimed at providing 100,000 jobs for unemployed graduates in the country.

Richard Quarshiga who is Member of Parliament for Keta says the Nation Builders Corps (NBC) project is nothing more than a duplication of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA).

His comments come a day before the official inauguration of the (NBC) project.

The project is part of government’s effort at reducing rising graduate unemployment in the country.
 
The project has seven modules including the Feed Ghana module which will employ graduate as agric extension officers to help farmers; the Educate Ghana module to recruit graduates to help in teaching science and maths in Senior High schools; the Revenue Ghana module which will help the Ghana Revenue Authority in the collection of revenue; the Heal Ghana module which will employ nurses.

“We also have the Governance Ghana module where people will be attached to various local authorities. We are beginning this year by the grace of God we will be recruiting 100,000 graduates,” the Vice president Dr Mahamudu Bawumia said last week.

But the even before the project will begin the Minority NDC says the policy is a sham.

Richard Quarshigah told Joy News Monday, government is “throwing dust in the eyes of Ghanaians.”
 
He does not understand why a new policy aimed at fighting graduate unemployment will be paying beneficiaries between 600-700 cedis.

“Government is not coming up with anything new” he said, adding, “this is just a duplication of function.”

According to him, the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) has similar modules and wondered why government “gave it a new name and created the impression as if it was coming up with something new.”

He challenged the government to come up with a more innovative way of solving the problem of graduate unemployment.