President John Dramani Mahama has announced a significant change in the disbursement of allowances for Nursing and Teacher Trainees, promising an end to the delays that have plagued the program in the past.
Speaking during a thank-you tour in Tamale, the President stated that the Controller and Accountant General’s Department will now directly pay the allowances, ensuring they are received simultaneously with public sector worker salaries.
“There is good news for nursing and teacher trainees,” President Mahama declared. “Nursing and Teacher trainee allowances are to be paid directly by the Controller and Accountant General. This has been made a part of the compensation items in the budget. This will permanently eliminate delays in training receiving their allowances. This means that any time public sector workers receive their monthly salary teachers and nursing trainees will also receive their allowances.”
The issue of trainee allowances was a contentious topic during the 2016 elections and remained a point of concern under the previous administration. This move aims to address those past issues and provide stability for future trainees.
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Beyond allowances, President Mahama also addressed the textbook shortage issue. “If you recall the previous administration changed the curriculum and yet refused to provide textbooks for our basic school students. This no-textbook phenomenon will end this year,” he assured.
“Your own son, Honourable Haruna Iddrisu is responsible for implementing this and he has assured us that these textbooks are going to be printed by Ghanaian printers so that money stays here in Ghana.”
Further solidifying his commitment to the Northern Region, the President outlined plans to upgrade the Old Tamale Central Hospital.
“We intend to upgrade the Old Tamale Central Hospital in order that it will ease the pressure on the Tamale Teaching Hospital,” he explained.
“So we are going to upgrade both the Tamale Municipal Hospital which used to be called Works Hospital at Zubile and the Tamale Central Hospital are both going to be upgraded so that we can ease the pressure on the Tamale Teaching Hospital.”
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He emphasized that “This will improve health care for the people of the Northern Region.”
President Mahama also touched on the government’s focus on agriculture, stating their commitment to investing in irrigation development to improve farming practices