Pay our locked-up funds – Mineworkers demand

The Ghana Mineworkers’ Union (GMWU) has urgently requested the Ministry of Finance to release and pay the funds, welfare savings, and severance packages of over 19,000 mineworkers. Following a peaceful demonstration in Accra, the union appealed to Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Baah Forson to address issues concerning the remaining Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions (SDIs), such as The Seed Funds Savings & Loans Limited (TSF) and Jislah Financial Services Limited (Jislah).

The petition, signed by GMWU General Secretary Abdul-Moomin Gbana, highlighted that these institutions have been unable to fulfill requests from their fund manager, IGS Financial Services Limited, to pay the funds they had been managing on behalf of the affected mineworkers. This delay has caused economic hardship for the workers and jeopardized industrial harmony.

The GMWU claims that the funds encompassed Provident Fund contributions, Welfare Funds, Leave Savings, Personal Investments, and Severance Packages, which have been trapped in affected financial institutions due to the Bank of Ghana's financial sector clean-up exercise. The union met with the Head of Banking Supervision at the Bank of Ghana and IGS in April 2021 and June 2021 to discuss the matter, but no resolution was reached.

The union has been restraining members from demonstrating, including outside the Bank of Ghana, and requested another meeting with the Bank’s Governor, which was never arranged. The GMWU emphasized the demand's alignment with the Ministry of Finance's mandate to maintain stability, equity, and public trust in Ghana's financial system and called for a meeting with the Minister of Finance to seek an urgent resolution for its members.