Trainee nurses reject gov’t’s GHc 150 allowance

The Ghana Nurses and Midwives Trainees Association has rejected government's offer to pay them GHc 150 monthly as allowance.

According to them, the amount is woefully inadequate per the memorandum of understanding they signed with the Ministry of Health in 2014.

The Association was responding to a statement released yesterday [Thursday] by the Health Ministry to pay an amount of GHc 150 monthly to trainees as their allowances were reinstated .

The allowance is to support 34,500 students who are currently pursing various levels of health professional training across the country.

We wont accept GHc 150 – Trainees
But speaking to Citi News, President of the Ghana Nurses and Midwives Trainees Association, Godwin Asabire Akazeem, instead called for an increment in the allowance.

“As for the 150 Ghana cedis, we don't see it as something we have to accept because per the memorandum of understanding we signed in 2014,” Mr. Akazee stated.

He explained further that “we were made to understand that if that 40 percent service allowance is going to be expressed in monetary value and given to us, it should be 50 percent the current amount of money they are taking now.”

Highlighting the important to the nurses, Mr. Akazee cited the trainee's expenditure on bills and transportation among others.

“There was the need for the government to give them service allowance to help them foot their clinical bills and other things they do… the fight for their own accommodation, taking cars, going to the ward and coming back. It definitely has to be increased.”

Why gov't scrapped allowances in the first place

Government announced a scrapping of the allowances in order to remove the restrictions on admission to the various training institutions due to the huge amounts it had to pay in the form of allowances.

This was in order to give more students the opportunity to gain admissions into these institutions.

However, the scrapping was met with much resistance from some students who rely on the allowances to support themselves in school.

This led to the setting up of a committee to advise on a more favorable resolution for the trainee nurses.

Per the committee's recommendation, 34,500 students who are currently pursuing various levels of health professional training across the country will receive a payment of GHc 150 a month.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana