The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) has demanded the removal of pension funds from the proposed debt exchange program by the government.
According to the Association, pension funds are collections of individual contributions made to protect people during their retirement years.
In a statement signed by the president and general secretary of the association, the proposed program is described as unacceptable because it will affect individuals with pension funds and the GRNMA fund as well.
“Pension funds, particularly Tier 3 schemes, were encouraged to hold their investments for a minimum of 10 years. Most schemes have just passed the 10-year mark since their inception in 2012 or will do so next year. Data exchange for pension funds will mean that workers will not have access to Tier 3 funds after waiting for 5–15 years. This is unacceptable!”
The association’s leadership stated that it would be unfair to subject poor workers to hardship as a result of the proposed new bond issuance as part of the debt exchange, and thus the government must allow their bonds to mature.
“Pensioners should not be made to suffer the consequences of the government’s fiscal indiscipline when they have paid their share of taxes and worked to build the economy while taking very low salaries,” the association added.
The Association emphasized that it is unacceptable for the government to budget 18% inflation in 2023 with a zero-interest rate for the pension funds of the poor, who are hardworking and law-abiding citizens, thus urging the government to withdraw pension funds from the debt exchange.
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta announced the government’s domestic debt exchange program on December 4, 2022, and officially launched it on December 5, 2022.
The program’s goal, according to him, is to assist the government in reducing its debt burden in order to restore debt servicing sustainability. It will also ensure that Treasury bills are exempt from the policy, while an interest-only haircut will apply to individual bondholders.
