The Ghana Mineworkers’ Union (GMWU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has petitioned the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) over the continued retention of provident funds, welfare savings, leave savings, personal investments and severance packages belonging to more than 19,000 mineworkers.
The petition was submitted on Thursday, August 20, 2026, as part of a demonstration and engagement that began at the Bank of Ghana, proceeded to the Ministry of Finance and ended at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.
The union said funds exceeding GH¢380 million belonging to the affected workers remained locked up as of October 31, 2025, following the financial-sector clean-up and the distress of Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions (SDIs), including The Seed Funds Savings & Loans Limited (TSF) and Jislah Financial Services Limited (Jislah).
According to the GMWU, the institutions have been unable to honour payment requests made by IGS Financial Services Limited (IGS), the fund manager responsible for managing the workers’ funds.
The union said the affected funds include provident fund contributions, welfare funds, leave savings, personal investments and severance packages.
The prolonged delays, it said, had placed significant financial pressure on affected workers, including retirees, redundant workers, widows and dependants struggling to meet healthcare, education, accommodation and other essential expenses.
“We, the Ghana Mineworkers’ Union of the TUC (Ghana), acting on behalf of over 19,000 hard-working Ghanaian mineworkers, formally submit this petition to demand the immediate resolution of the legacy issues,” the union said in its petition.
The GMWU said it had raised concerns with the BoG as far back as April and June 2021, when it met the Head of Banking Supervision together with IGS. According to the union, it was assured that the central bank was aware of the challenges and that plans were underway to provide a solution.
The union said it had also requested a meeting with the BoG Governor, but that meeting never took place.
It said members had continued to exercise patience because of assurances from government, the BoG and international partners that outstanding financial-sector legacy issues would eventually be resolved.
The union cited a March 28, 2025 statement by the BoG Governor that “there has to be a clean-up of the SDI sector” and that the central bank was engaging the Ministry of Finance on the matter.
It also referenced earlier statements concerning discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the remaining distressed institutions and IMF reports calling for unresolved financial-sector legacy issues to be addressed.
The GMWU expressed concern over recent statements attributed to the Finance Minister suggesting that the BoG should recover assets of weak or insolvent institutions and use the proceeds to settle depositors, while the Ministry of Finance had no money for the exercise.
The union argued that the position appeared inconsistent with previous commitments to address the outstanding legacy issues.
It warned that continued delays could threaten industrial harmony, pointing to previous demonstrations and strike actions by workers in the mining sector.
Receiving the petition on behalf of the Finance Minister, Deputy Finance Minister Thomas Nyarko Ampem acknowledged the seriousness of the financial-sector clean-up and assured the union that government had received its concerns.
“The issue of the banking sector cleanup has had a very serious effect on this economy,” Mr Ampem said.
He said government had spent significant resources recapitalising banks and that the banking sector was now stronger and had returned to profitability.
“It is a process,” he said, urging the union to engage government through dialogue rather than confrontation.
“I want to meet the general of TUC and all your leadership for us to sit, discuss and then agree,” the deputy Minister added.
