By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The Secretary of the University of Ghana (UG) Branch of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), Professor Ransford Yaw Gyampo, has hinted at a massive strike by Organised Labour over the recently announced Domestic Debt Exchange Programme.
According to him since the government has gone out of its way to announce the Programme without recourse to Organised Labour, they will also proceed on strike to reject any attempt to touch their pensions.
Professor Gyampo gave the hint on Wednesday, December 14, 2022.
”This pending strike is going to be a strike of organized labour”, he noted.
The UG- UTAG Secretary believes the government has confined itself to unilateral decisions on behalf of workers.
“It is very bad and unacceptable’, he said.
The Domestic Debt Exchange Programme was launched on Monday, December 5, 2022 by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta.
Under the Programme, domestic bondholders will be asked to exchange their instruments for new ones.
Existing domestic bonds as of Thursday, December 1, 2022 will be exchanged for a set of four new bonds maturing in 2027, 2029, 2032, and 2037.
The annual coupon on all of those bonds will be set at 0% in 2023, 5% in 2024, and 10% from 2025 until maturity with coupon payments done semiannually.
