Coronavirus National Unemployment Insurance not for all unemployed persons - Baffour-Awuah

The Minister-designate for Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour-Awuah has clarified that the National Unemployment Insurance Scheme announced by the government will not benefit every unemployed person.

Appearing before the vetting of parliament today, Wednesday, February 17, 2021, he explained that when the announcement first came, the understanding the public had was that every unemployed person was going to benefit.

"I beg to say that, that is not the intention of the fund," he stated.

He said before COVID-19, nobody anticipated that in a year, we would have such a huge issue on us with several people losing their jobs.

"What government sought to do is to set up an insurance scheme where the government will identify an insurance scheme, pay some money into it as a stakeholder, and all other stakeholders will pay some amount of money into it. So if in an event such as covid comes up and people are unable to work, such persons can apply and get something for sustenance and retraining so they can relocate to other jobs.”

He further added that currently, a technical committee is working on the nature of how the fund would operate.

He said an amount of GHC50 million was set aside for the funds as seed money.

In 2020, the government announced the establishment of a National Unemployment Insurance Scheme for workers in consultation with Trade Unions Congress and Ghana Employers Association and the Social Security and National Investment Trust (SSNIT).

This was to provide temporary income support and retraining opportunities for laid-off workers while they search for other employment. Work on the design of the scheme and necessary legislation will be done in 2020 to facilitate its in 2021.