The Senior Staff Association-Universities of Ghana (SSG-UoG), has stated that it will resist any attempts by the government to make any haircuts on the pension contributions of its members under the new Domestic Debt Restructuring Programme launched by the government some few days ago.
According to the group, it sees the action by the government as an ‘insensitive behavior’ towards the ordinary Ghanaian worker who keeps rendering vital services to the country even under these unbearable and harsh economic challenges, which can at best be described as self-inflicted by the very people who were supposed to initiate policies towards easing the persistent suffering of the ordinary Ghanaian.
“We will, therefore, resist this insensitive action by the government with the last drop of our blood and insist that under no circumstance should Government touch our hard-earned pension contributions.”
SSG – UoG
SSG-UoG cautioned the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), Board of trustees and its Fund Managers (Petra Trust), to ensure that the pension contributions of its members, are not affected by the Debt Restructuring Programme.
Ghana’s Domestic Debt Exchange Programme has been launched to put the country’s debt on a sustainable path. The debt restructuring will see a slash in interest payments for domestic bondholders to zero percent in 2023 and five percent in 2024.
Existing domestic bonds as of December 1, 2022, will also be exchanged for a set of four new bonds maturing in 2027, 2029, 2032 and 2037, all in a bid of restoring the nation’s capacity to service its debt.
However, under the domestic debt exchange programme, treasury bills and individual bondholders will not be affected while there will be no ‘haircuts’ on the principal bonds.
Proposals And Advice To The Government
The association further proposed some policies to help address the country’s debt situation rather than the haircutting of individuals’ investments. One of the policies is the cutting down of the size of government by the President.
Again, the group opined in a statement that the government must reduce the number of SUVs in the presidential convoy as well as cutting the salaries of all government appointees.
SSG -UoG further appealed to the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Hon Ignatius Baffour Awuah, as a matter of urgency, to carry out recalculation of all the accrued interest on their Tier-2 contributions from 2010-2016 in accordance with section 64 of the National Pensions Act, 2008 (Act 766), and pay same to its Fund Managers.
Prior to this, several individuals, institutions, groups and media practitioners had advised the President, Nana Akuffo Addo to either cut down the number of ministers, slash the salaries of government appointees amongst others. However, the President is yet to act on any of the proposed measures.
The government has agreed that, indeed, the country is facing dire economic hardship and has noted that it will do everything possible in its capacity to make Ghana’s economy bounce back to normal.
Currently, the local currency is gradually appreciating as against other foreign currencies. The Cedi now stands at Gh 7.99 to $1 as at today December 16. There has also been a reduction in the prices of petroleum products such as diesel and petrol.
READ ASLO: GPRTU Dares GUTA To Display Prices Of Reduced Spare Parts
