The unemployment situation in the country is growing by the day with many companies laying off their staff as result of the hard economic conditions which management continue to blame on the workforces’ inability to meet targets.
President Akufo-Addo, Vice-President, Mahamudu Bawumia, Minority Leader and onetime Minister for Employment and Social Welfare, Haruna Iddrisu, have at different times described the growing incidence of unemployment as a huge security risk to the country.
Groupe Nduom, a broad-based multinational business group chaired by Ghanaian business and politician, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom few days ago, sacked 300 workers within the various units under the conglomerate which include; the GN Bank, the media unit and Coconut Groove hotels in Greater Accra and Central regions.
This comes days after the newly-established Consolidated Bank of Ghana, sent home 1,700 staff and gears up for thousands more of the workers absorbed from the Unibank, Royal Bank, Sovereign Bank and the Construction Bank.
The affected Consolidated Bank workers, include 700 mobile bankers of the erstwhile BEIGE Bank, while 1,000, are former employees of the Royal Bank, the Construction Bank, uniBank and the Sovereign Bank.
Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) had earlier thrown out thousands of the staff of Capital Bank and the UTbank, when it took over the two banks on the marching orders of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), in August last year.
Aside the private sector, the freeze on employment in the public sector, especially the health services, has led to many health professionals, including nurses unable to seek jobs after school.
It is believed that, there are currently over 32,000 unemployed nurses in Ghana, who demonstrate fortnightly against the Akufo-Addo government demanding jobs.
It is unclear, the number of health professionals, including medical doctors, midwives, pharmacists, psychologists and others who are idling about unemployed.
The story of Fadila Ndebugre, a young nurse, who was trained at the Dunkwa-On-Offin Nursing Training College in the Central Region, who had to resort to head-ferrying of loads (kayayo) for shoppers at the Madina market, for survival, made it into the media.
Fadila Ndebugre, awaits her posting by the Ministry of Health, so she can practice as a nurse – two years after leaving school.
A native of Fumbisi in the Upper East Region, Fadila, graduated from the nursing training college in August 2016, but was forced to idle at home due to the delay by the Ministry of Health in posting her batch of nurses to health facilities across the country.
She, thus, decided to be a ‘kayayo’, in the interim, as she awaits her posting.
Fadila told GBC24 in an interview that even though her resort to being a ‘kayayo’ was a stop-gap, “I’m never satisfied because, sometimes carrying the load in itself, you get tired; the work is very stressful, but because there’s nothing to do, I don’t want to be idle, I have to get myself involved in something; that’s why I’m doing it”.
“It’s very dangerous”, she said, adding: “There are always cars moving around.
“Sometimes you can be hit by a car or any vehicle at all; one can be hit down, and there are others that move on bikes…”, adding: “Sometimes you carry something, when you fall down, you are asked to pay for it … If you happen to break something like a glass, the person may ask you to account for it”, she lamented.
Fadila, said she cannot wait for the Ministry of Health to post her to a facility to put her nursing skills to use.
“I wish I was being called to do my nursing than doing this because it doesn’t help. I’m not making enough money but just because I don’t want to be idle and there’s nothing to do, I want to get something small for myself; that’s why I get myself on board”, she said.
Groupe Nduom last week wrote to some of it workers saying “Management wishes to inform you that your services with GN TV are no longer needed. The termination of your appointment takes immediate effect. The company is therefore exercising its right to terminate under clause 7.3 of the HR Manual by giving you the required statutory notice. However, you will be paid one (1) month salary in lieu of notice”.
The rebranded TV Africa is suspending all of its on-air programmes, except news from today Monday September 3, 2018.
The TV channel, will resort to playing musical videos and showing movies.
While some reports say the owner of the business has told senior management members that he is unable to pay workers going forward, others have said that a new General Manager, has been appointed at the company after the departure of popular filmmaker, Shirley Frimpong Manso.
Although, reports are that workers have not been paid for a couple of months creating uneasiness at the firm, some claim that the new management is streamlining things by taking off some live programmes.
Barely six months after her appointment as the Chief Operations Officer (COO) of TV Africa, Frimpong Manso, left the job with five other senior managers.
Shirley was appointed to her post to help place the station in a better position in the competitive media market.
This was after TV Africa had undergone re-branding of its programmes, style and content. About two years ago, a private financial holding company; the Ideal Groupe, acquired a majority share in TV Africa after 13 years of operation from the old Kwaw Ansah management.
The re-branding process brought onboard Ghanaian politician and journalist, Obuobia Darko Opoku, actress Nikki Samonas and Khadijat El- Alawa, as morning show hosts.
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