A group of unemployed graduate nurses and midwives from the Ashanti Regional capital, Kumasi, took to the streets on Monday to demand postings and protest against the government’s delay in granting financial clearance for their permanent job placements.
The protesters, comprising graduates from the 2020, 2021, and 2022 batches, hail from various public universities and Nursing Training Colleges.
Despite extensive public announcements encouraging more members to join the protest, the numbers remained low. However, the few participants remained determined to voice their frustrations.
Many of the unemployed nurses and midwives have been forced to seek alternative job opportunities due to the delay in their postings.
The President of the Graduate Unemployed Nurses and Midwives Association, Haruna Ibrahim, told Citi News that they have been informed severally that the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance are discussing their clearance, but all have proven futile.
However, they believe that some individuals are receiving financial clearance and postings in exchange for bribes.
Mr Ibrahim warned that if their demands are not met, the association will picket at the Finance and Health Ministries.
“The feedback we always get is very soon. When we had the first demonstration in Tamale, we were told that the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance were meeting to discuss our clearance. The next day we saw a release from the Ministry of Health addressing what we described as ghost officials at the Ministry of Health.
At MoH and MoF, we think that there are people who are giving financial clearance and postings to some of our colleagues who can afford between 5000 and 10000. Immediately they pay, they get posted.”
