The People’s National Convention (PNC) has said it will ensure the pension age is reduced to 50 from 60 years so as to allow many more young people to gain employment.

“A PNC government will review the pension scheme and make it attractive and equally reduce the pension age from 60 to 50 to make way for a youthful working population”, the party said in a statement signed by its General Secretary Janet Nabla to commemorate May Day on Saturday, 1 May 2021.

“A younger working population makes a great nation”, the party argued to justice its intent.

It also said: “A future PNC government shall ensure the salary of workers is enough to meet their needs”.

Furthermore, the party said: “We shall put in place policies to cut down the import of goods that could be produced locally to create more jobs for Ghanaians while embarking on major value-addition to our raw products such as cocoa, cashew, etc., to further create employment in the country”.

Read the PNC’s full May Day statement below: 

HAPPY WORKERS’ DAY 

A worker is a creator and a great asset to every nation. To this end, the PNC celebrates fellow hardworking countrymen and women whose activities serve as the ladder through which human dignity and creative excellence are expressed.

We celebrate every worker on this May Day; from the man in the street hawking to the experts in each of the levels of our economic architecture.

We are not oblivious of the difficult circumstances in which our workers are operating, especially in the face of this COVID-19 pandemic.

The sacrifices our health workers are making in confronting this deadly virus are remarkable. We applaud them.

The salaries workers receive that hardly meet their financial obligations and the conditions in which they work; the absence of requisite tools to aid workers in their operations in both public and private enterprises, yet, you, the workers, are pushing the wheels of this nation to grow.

We acknowledge the loss of jobs in recent times, mainly due to COVID-19 and the effort of the government to address the difficulty in getting jobs by our teaming youth.

The Nation Builders Corps, Planting and Rearing for Food and Jobs, recruitment of teachers and nurses among a few others, are commendable acts by the government of His Excellency Nana Akufo Addo.

We believe more could be done.

A September 2020 report of the World Bank titled: ‘Youth Employment Programmes in Ghana: Options for Effective Policy Making and Implementation’, reported that Ghana is faced with 12% youth unemployment and more than 50% underemployment, both higher than overall unemployment rates in sub-Saharan African countries.

The number of graduates produced every year across the tertiary institutions is alarming and that despite major investments by the government and private sector, this challenge will intensify if job opportunities remain limited.

A future PNC government shall ensure the salaries of workers are enough to meet their needs.

We shall put in place policies to cut down the import of goods that could be produced locally to create more jobs for Ghanaians while embarking on major value-addition to our raw products such as cocoa, cashew, etc., to further create employment in the country.

We are concerned about the pension scheme of workers.

A PNC government will review the pension scheme and make it attractive and equally reduce the pension age from 60 to 50 to make way for a youthful working population.

A younger working population makes a great nation.

We say ‘Ayekooo’ to our gallant workers.

PNC: Service with honesty.

-signed-

Janet Asana Nabla

General Secretary

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