Health Minister Dr Bernard Okoe Boye has admitted that some trainee nurses’ allowances are still in arrears. However, he quickly added that delayed allowances is better than no allowance at all.
Dr Okoe Boye was speaking on the sidelines of a working visit to the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC) and the Lekma Hospital at Teshie where he donated ambulances to the two facilities.
Addressing the students allowances issues, Dr Okoe Boye said “we paid some GH₵177 million for over one hundred thousand nurses covering some four months of payments. Look, there are thousands of nurses whose allowance has been paid by this government,” he stated.
He took a detour to jab former President Mahama who cancelled the allowance and replaced it with the student loan.
“It is also true that there are others whose payments are in arrears. We have decided to work hard to sustain and to pay this arears. You have to choose between the one who says I will pay you and pays you and sometimes owes you and the other one who says, me I can’t pay these things at all,” Okoe Boye.
The former Ledzokuku MP added that if it was under John Mahama, there would be nothing like allowance to talk about. He said the students should remember that so many are benefitting from it because of Akufo-Addo.
“If you have had the other government led by John Mahama for the past 8 years it will be zero for all nurses in Ghana. But as we speak hundreds of thousands of nurses have had support from the Akufo-Addo government and it is also true there are hundreds of thousands who are calling for theirs to come. We will work hard to ensure that everybody receives what is due them.’
He urged the students to keep supporting the NPP because it is a party that delivers on its promise. Dr Okoe Boye said regardless of whatever happens, the NPP would always be better than Mahama who said he would not pay allowance.
“This is the kind of government that you have to support. The one who says I will shoulder this burden. I will work hard to sustain, it is better than the one who says this is too much load for me. I can’t carry. The choice is yours,“ he stated.