The Deputy General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Joshua Ansah says the Union was not consulted prior to the announcement of the proposed stabilization fund rollout of Ghana’s Domestic Debt Exchange Program.
Speaking at the launch of the debt restructuring programme on Monday, December 5, 2022, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta said the “Government have also dialogued extensively with regulators across the Financial Sector including Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), National Insurance Commission (NIC) and National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) to agree that regulatory forbearance will be provided to all entities whose financial position is adversely affected by virtue of participating in this exchange.”
But in an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, Mr. Ansah said the Government did not engage his outfit on the program.
“Nobody has consulted us, the first time TUC heard this announcement was on Radio and TV as you also heard. So, if they have thought about it and they want to do such thing that is an abstractor. But as I speak to you now nobody has discussed anything with us,” he lamented.
He insisted the TUC does not want government to touch its pension fund.
“They should create that fund and use it for what they want to do. If they had the fund why then do they want to touch another person’s pension and pay later when the person needs it. I mean it’s not understandable” he mentioned.
He maintained that, “workers are grieved in the country,” and therefore if government should touch their pension ,”I mean this is serious” he added.
The Deputy General Secretary revealed that if the ultimatum given to government fails, they would find other alternatives,”I don’t think they would wait till the 19th deadline, we will cross the bridge when we get there. We have said it in our statement that if the 19th is not met, we would meet again at 12noon at the same venue and tell government what’s on our mind.”
The government launched the Domestic Debt Exchange programme which was first announced in the 2023 budget.
The programme involves the swapping of existing domestic bonds with longer-dated bonds that will take between five and 14 years to mature in 2037.
This means the extension of the repayment period for the bonds issued and held locally to allow for a staggered and phased payment of both the interest and the principal.
