Govt Recruits 58 Vet Professionals

The government has engaged the services of 58 veterinary professionals, including 41 doctors, to augment the dwindling number of veterinary officers in the country.

The rest are veterinary nurses who will help protect public health and control animal diseases transferable to human beings.

“The development is crucial because in the next two to five year’s nearly all the present staff of the Veterinary Services Department (VSD) will retire,” the Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr Asiedu Baah, has said.

He spoke in an interview with the Daily Graphic last week Wednesday at a training programme for the new recruits in Accra.

Up until the new recruits were engaged, he said, the VSD had a staff strength of 55 professionals of which 45 were in active service with the rest being staff on retirement who had been re-engaged to manage the department’s 216 district directorates.

“The recruitment exercise is very important as it brings to 113 the number of veterinary professionals we have in the country. Although the number is still small compared to the number of district directorates we operate, it is better than last year,” he said.

Dr Baah said the new recruits had already been posted to the various regions and districts where the Rearing for Food and Jobs (RFJ) programme was being implemented.

He explained that the professionals recruited were among a batch that had graduated since 2016 but had remained unemployed due to the government’s inability to absorb them into the system.

He said improving the staff strength of the VSD was among promises the government made when it took office in 2017.

“The development is very important as it will contribute positively to the Rearing for Food and Jobs programme which was launched in June this year. 

Consequently, we have posted the recruits to the areas where their services are needed,” he said.