Government will next year 2022 engage relevant stakeholders and technical experts to pave the way for the passage of a National Unemployment Insurance Scheme (NUIS) Bill to lay the framework and foundation for the operationalisation of the scheme Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has said.

The establishment of the NUIS and the training/retraining programme is another initiative under the GhanaCARES programme.

Since its announcement in the 2020 Mid-Year Budget Review, the government said it has held a series of engagements with key stakeholders on the design and execution of the scheme.

The objective of NUIS is to cushion workers who become unemployed as a result of an economic shock such as COVID-19 pandemic and also serve as a mitigating measure for unexpected future events that may disrupt employment.

The training/retraining programme is aimed at preserving and upgrading the human capital and skills of the current cohort of workers who lost their employment because of the pandemic.

This programme is intended to facilitate their re-entry into productive employment at higher levels of performance.

In his 2022 budget presentation before parliament on Wednesday, 17 March 2021, Mr Ofori-Atta said the government together with social partners, piloted the training and retraining programme for workers in the tourism, hospitality and the private education sectors.

“The processes for identification of relevant modules and selection of beneficiaries for the training and retraining programme were completed. The first phase of the programme is expected to be rolled out across the country as soon as the necessary institutional arrangements are finalised,” he stated.