The Veterinary Medical and Technicians Association of Ghana has called on the government to expedite the financial clearance and posting of unemployed veterinary officers who have completed their training and are awaiting employment.
This plea comes after the Coalition of Unemployed Veterinary Officers of Ghana issued a 21-day ultimatum, demanding an explanation from the government regarding the delay in clearing the remaining 550 veterinary officers, along with those who have finished their mandatory National Service.
The Association emphasized the critical need for more Veterinary Medical and Technicians to ensure public health safety.
The coalition claims its members are struggling to survive due to the lack of job opportunities and is demanding the release of financial clearance and postings for all 550 unemployed technical officers and nurses who have completed their national service from 2018 to the present.
In response to the students’ demands, the Head of Public Relations for the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Bagbara Tanko, stated that the ministry is collaborating with the Finance Ministry to obtain the necessary clearance for the recruitment process.
“As we may all recall in 2021 when we had an outbreak of the bird flu, it exposed the human resources challenge of the veterinary services, so the government then brought in some interventions to meet the situation.”
“Among them was a clearance to recruit about 1,100 veterinary experts which included doctors and technicians. Since then, about 720 have been done. The remaining number to be recruited stands at 380, for which we are still waiting for the Ministry of Finance to give us clearance.”
Emmanuel Esseian, President of the Veterinary Medical and Technicians Association of Ghana, appealed to the government to empathise with the students.
He highlighted the challenges the service faces amidst the shortage of staff, noting that the absence of these personnel has led many farmers to resort to unprofessional treatment of their animals, thereby jeopardizing public health.
Mr Esseian also emphasized the importance of employing these officers to boost the poultry industry and support government policies on agriculture.
“The planting for food and jobs 2.0, there’s a portion that we deal with poultry and one of our main problems with poultry in this country apart from the cost of production is also animal outbreaks, animal diseases. So all these individuals when employed will help boost the poultry industry and government policy on agriculture will succeed.”
