Trainee nurses and midwives in Ghana say government is seeking to throw dust into their eyes by commencing the payment of a decreased Nurses Trainee Allowance to them.
Government Thursday announced the payment of an abated Nurses Trainee Allowance as a stopgap measure to mitigate the cry of nurses in the scrapping of allowances by government.
The allowances come with barely three weeks to the December 7 elections.
A statement from the Ministry of Health and signed by the Head of Public Relations, Tony Goodman said: “the untaxed amount is One Hundred and Fifty Ghana Cedis (GHC150.00) per student for three months making a total amount of Four Hundred and Fifty Ghana Cedis (GHC450.00) per student.”
But the President of the Ghana Nurses and Midwives Trainees Association, Godwin Asabire Akazeem, in an interview with Accra-based Citi FM said government is capitalizing on the situation and playing politics with the matter.
“We realize that this allowance that they said is a restoration of the allowance, the sustainability too is in question, as to whether they paying from July, August to September, on table top the rest of the months that are going to be paid is also going to be table top or what?They should tell us the truth whether this a restoration of the allowance. And if this is the restoration of the allowance they should bring documents and papers…”
“…What at all is it that government want from Trainee nurses that we don’t know? they should provide the policy document on paper so that we know, that Ghanaians will also know and our parents will also know that this allowance that is being given to us is in the act of allowance and not an allowance because we are so much disappointed in government. Even in 2014 government was paying an allowance of GHS 495.00. So if this government could see that there was the need for them to pay the GHS 495.00, now that the market is extremely high and trainees are paying exorbitant sums of monies and then you come and say you’re paying them an abated allowance of GHS150 and that you’re paying them for three months with no policy documents and provision of guidelines for subsequent governments so they know what they are expected to do if they come. “
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