President Mahama Happy With Agreement On New Minimun Wage

The President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, has expressed satisfaction with the agreement reached by the Tripartite Committee on a new minimum wage. He said the peaceful nature of the negotiation process demonstrated the determination of the government, labour and employers to work together in the common interest of the nation. Addressing the staff and students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi as part of his working visit to the Ashanti Region last Saturday, the President said he had been concerned about the delay in reaching a common ground before the May Day celebration. Mr Mahama explained that this year's negotiations suffered delays because of the critical nature wages had assumed with regard to the national budget. He said following the implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS), government�s expenditure on wages and salaries had gone up, which ultimately had some negative effect on the national economy. The government, he said, had to adopt a certain position in order to extricate itself from the pressure it had gone through as a result of the implementation of the SSSS. Training of human resource Mr Mahama said in transforming the country, the development of a critical mass of human resource was crucial, and that was why the government had continually channeled the biggest chunk of the national budget into education. He gave an assurance that the government would remain committed to getting the best for all areas of education. In training the human resource, Mr Mahama stressed the need for the universities to tailor their programmes of study at the needs of industry, saying that would help address the high rate of unemployment in the country. The President asked the universities to use their intellectual capacity to educate the people on the state of the nation to enable them to appreciate the true situation on the ground. He said consistently some people had twisted the economic situation to suit their own interests and said intellectuals had the ability to correct that. Mr Mahama said the government would expand facilities at the medical schools to enable them to admit more qualified students. The Vice-Chancellor of KNUST, Prof.Ellis, placed on record the government's continued support to the university in terms of infrastructure over the years. "As a premier science and technology institution, the university will continue to play its role in the development of the nation's critical human resource, provide support for industry and partner with individuals, corporate bodies and investors in new business start-ups," he said. Prof. Ellis said the running of science and technology education today required massive investment, and added that although the university was doing its best to meet the demands, it still required government support in that direction.