By Nathaniel Nartey
As 2021 draws to a close, GBC News finds out from some Experts and Stakeholders how government’s flagship programmes have fared during the year under review. These include the Planting for Food and Jobs and NABCO.
On the Planting for Food and Jobs Policy which has been the government’s flagship programme for the Agricultural Sector, Secretary of the General Agricultural Workers Union GAWU, Edward Kareweh said 2021 saw the worst performance of the policy since its introduction. He narrowed it down to the lack of subsidized fertilizer and maize for poultry farmers.
” 2021 is the worst year for the Planting for Food and Jobs programme. For 2021 we experienced so many challenges one of which is the lack of maize for poultry farmers and as a result maize prices went up that when the farmers got the maize, they couldn’t buy. We are also aware that in 2021 farmers could not get subsidized fertilizers at the time they needed it just because the government was unable to pay for fertilizer supplies they got from suppliers for the previous year, and we saw how farmers struggled to buy fertilizers from the open market”.
On the review of NABCO, Labour Analyst Austin Gamey said the policy in general terms did not have a positive response to the unemployment situation. He advised the government to review the policy to avoid the uncertainties that have characterized the programme after it officially ended in October this year.
”My commentary on it (NABCO) is that it did not respond positively to all the intended remedies but it is better than having nothing…..its been good but overall we cannot say it has when just a few have been absorbed into the mainstream, government system. The programme can be continued, but we should give it a new twist so that we don’t let the people feel that if they are invited into NABCO it may not work. I don’t like it in the form in which it is”.
Apart from the flagship programmes, the exigencies of the time prompted the government to roll out others which were not planned for but have become necessary such as Ghana’s Covid-19 Management Policy. General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association Dr Titus Beyuo applauded the government for putting in place robust measures in dealing with Covid-19 this year. He said the general low case count being witnessed this year is as a result of proactive measures which other countries have also adopted.
“I think as a nation we have done well, we had a wave in the early part of the year but we put in effort and brought it down considerably . If you look at our case count, our story looks good nationally and internationally. In terms of the measures our country perhaps is the leading country with strict measures. We are the first country to introduce a Vaccination Policy for entry at the Airport this year and the UK has just announced that they are going to follow what we have done and it shows that we are showing leadership that even the West are learning from us so in all we have done well”.
