Accra, Dec. 06, GNA – The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) has registered its dismay and disappointment at the proposed debt exchange programme as announced by the Minister of Finance on December 5, 2022.
The Association said it rejected the proposal because pension funds were a collection of contributions of individuals and by design they were meant to protect the vulnerable during retirement, would be affected.
A statement issued in Accra by the Association said any treatment of “individuals” as stated by the Minister of Finance must be indeed extended to all individuals as with pension funds including their GRNMA Fund, a Provident Fund for over 101 ,000 contributors who were nurses and midwives within the nursing and midwifery fraternity.
It said Pension Funds, particularly tier 3 schemes were encouraged to hold their investments for a minimum of 10 years and from its inception in 2012, most schemes had just met the 10 years or would be 10 years next year.
“Debt exchange for pension funds will mean that workers will not have access to Tier 3 funds after waiting for 5 – 15 years. This is simply unacceptable,” it added.
The statement said by the National Pension Regulatory Authority’s (NPRA) regulations, all Pension Schemes had most of their assets in Government of Ghana securities and trustees of these Pension Schemes were bound by regulation in the asset allocation policy by the NPRA.
It said, it would therefore be untenable for the poor worker to suffer under the proposed new bond issuance as part of the debt exchange.
It said the government should therefore allow their Bonds to run until their maturity.
The statement said Pensioners should not be made to suffer the consequences of the government’s fiscal indiscipline when they had paid their fair share of taxes, worked to build the economy whiles taking very low salaries.
“It is unacceptable that a government that budgets 18 per cent inflation in 2023 will consider zero interest rate for pension funds of poor, hardworking, law abiding citizens within the same period,” it said.
It, therefore, called on the government to withdraw the inclusion of pension funds from its debt exchange programme and allow the funds as invested to run until their maturity.
GNA