Restoration of Nurses allowance a political gimmick - Bawumia

Magdalene Teiko Larnyoh 15:34 - 09 October 2016

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Government scrapped the allowances to remove the restrictions on admission to the various training institutions. This was in order to give more students the opportunity to gain admissions into these institutions.

The 2016 Vice Presidential nominee for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has described the restoration of the nurses trainee allowance as a pure political gimmick.

Dr Bawumia was speaking at the 2016 manifesto launch of the NPP at the Accra International Trade Fair Centre today (Sunday).

"Nana Akufo-Addo has given his commitment to restore teacher and nursing training allowances fully...Mahama’s U-turn on allowances is a purely election year gimmick and must be dismissed with the contempt it deserves…at this stage President Mahama will say anything to get re-elected,” Dr Bawumia said.

President John Mahama recently reiterated government’s decision to restore the allowances of nursing trainees.

He said a technical committee set up to review allowances for nursing trainees has recommended payment of an abated allowance with a possibility to migrate them onto the Students Loan Scheme.

Addressing trainee nurses as part of his five-day campaign tour in the Brong Ahafo region, he said “the committee recommended that since we are yet to amend the law to put our nursing and midwifery students on the students loan scheme, we should also put them on the allowance.”

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