Bawumia announces GH¢177m to clear nursing trainee allowance arrears
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has announced that the Ministry of Finance has approved GH¢177million to clear all nursing trainee allowance arrears.
Addressing nurses and midwives in Accra, the New Patriotic Party(NPP) flagbearer assured them that the arrears would be settled on Thursday, May 16, 2024.
“This Thursday, the Controller is transferring GH¢177 million to the Ministry of Health to pay the nursing training allowances. So I have also alerted Dr Okoe-Boye to be on standby when the money hits the Ministry of Health account; they should move it quickly to the accounts of the nursing trainees so that they will have their ‘allows’. It will drop,” he assured.
The nursing trainee allowance, which has been in arrears for months and has led to a series of protests by the health workers, was reintroduced by the Akufo-Addo administration after it was abolished in 2014.
Former President John Mahama, under the umbrella of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), scrapped the teacher and nursing trainee allowances, justifying that it was necessary to use the money to invest in education infrastructure.
Following the government’s reintroduction of the nursing trainee allowance, the Ghana Nurse-Midwife Trainees’ Association (GNMTA) have been mounting intense pressure on the government to settle their arrears.
In various interviews, the President of the Association, Pascal Adumbisa, claimed the withheld allowances amid economic hardship were making life unbearable for the students.
According to GNMTA’s leadership, all efforts to get the government, through the Ministry of Health, to settle the arrears have proven futile.