Dr Cassiel Ato Forson – Minister of Finance
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has, in its reaction to the 2025 budget, stated that “it was silent on the fundamental issues affecting employment creation in Ghana.”
It added in a statement issued Tuesday that “the macroeconomic targets for 2025 side-stepped employment.”
In government’s current resetting mode “it should muster courage to set employment targets sector by sector and region by region.”
Ghana, TUC advised, must move away from the usual answer “that there is no data on employment. We need statistical evidence for job creation across the 16 regions.”
The TUC urged government to prioritise support to the private sector as part of its efforts to create decent employment. Pointing at three areas that deserve special attention; the first being the national trade policy which it noted is inconsistent with our employment objectives. “It penalizes domestic production and makes imports excessively lucrative. We must consciously work to limit imports of some of the basic products we can produce here. This is the only way we can build domestic champions and get more of our people employed,” TUC stressed.
Our businesses cannot be competitive overnight unless we nurture them for a while, TUC noted, adding “early exposure to competition will destroy them and the potential jobs they can offer.”
The second issue relates to interest rates, TUC stated, adding that “the current high interest rates regime makes business expansion almost impossible.”
To address this “the TUC is urging government to intervene in the money lending market and find ways to reduce the usurious interest rates. Government must seriously consider capping the spread between the lending and deposit rates. This could have the twin effects of stimulating savings and bringing down lending rates.”
The third point is about the enhancement of productivity, TUC stated, as it called for concrete action to enhance productivity in both the public and private sectors as part of the efforts to create decent employment.
On the wage situation, the TUC recalled its earlier observation when it noted that “the wage situation in Ghana has worsened in the last few years.”
At GH¢19.97, it went on “the Daily
Minimum Wage in 2025 translates into a mere US$1.28 for eight (8) hours of work,” and this it adds “is just about half of the International Poverty Line of US$2.15 per day.”
The significant proportion of workers receiving the minimum wage are exploited and impoverished, and so “Government must be concerned as we are about the plight of minimum wage earners.”
The wage on the Single Spine Salary Structure from which the bulk of public sector workers are paid has equality challenges.
In the submission, the TUC highlighted its displeasure with the management of the basic social security scheme, which is administered by Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), adding “we equally express unhappiness with the delays in the payment of pension contributions by Government and the decision by Government to exclude all the security agencies from the pension unification programme.”