Gov't exempts pension funds from debt exchange programme

The exemption comes after organised labour in the country declared an indefinite strike from Tuesday, December 27, 2022, since they said the government has refused to listen to their advice on the pension funds.

The spokesperson Dr. Anthony Yaw Baah, who doubles as the Secretary General of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC), said the government has turned a deaf ear to their request to have pensions of workers exempt from the programme.

However, a meeting was held between Organised Labour, the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, the Finance Ministry, the National Security Ministry, and all other parties involved on Thursday, December 22, 2022.

After the meeting, through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the government and Organised labour, a seven-member committee was formed to explore technical solutions to bring the debt threshold back to sustainable limits.

Pension funds held 6% of domestic public debt worth 181 billion cedis ($20.1 billion) at the end of September, according to data from the Central Securities Depository.

Dr. Yaw Baah addressing the media said the labour union has called off its intended strike.

He said: "We are pleased to inform you that this afternoon the government has agreed to exempt all pension funds from the domestic debt restructuring."

"Government has decided to grant exemption to all pension funds in the DDE programme," he added.