Akufo-Addo defends SSNIT Hotel sale, describes controversy as ‘unnecessary’

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has described as unnecessary the controversies surrounding the sale of 60 per cent shares in the four hotels belonging to the Social Security National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to Rock City Hotels, owned by Agricultural Minister, Bryan Acheampong.

The President urged Ghanaians to be guided in the pronouncement regarding SSNIT assets.

He was speaking at the 12th quadrennial delegates conference of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) on Tuesday.

President Akufo-Addo noted that SSNIT was working assiduously to ensure that they made profits while the trust expanded its frontiers.

“The improved performance of SSNIT which recently in all successes [led to] GHC230m on its operations. This should be reassuring to organised labour and perhaps bring into sharper relief the unnecessary controversy that was recently generated by SSNIT’s efforts to offload non-performing assets in its hotel portfolio.”

“It is my understanding that the transaction that was aborted represented the only occasion in the recent history of SSNIT that external investors sought to invest in SSNIT holdings.

“All of us need to be measured when it comes to making decisions and pronouncements that would affect the long-term interests of pensioners,” he stated.

The move to sell off the SSNIT hotels sparked significant backlash, notably from North Tongu MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and organized labour, who viewed it as a distress sale to a government appointee.

This led to a nationwide protest and calls for a shake-up of SSNIT’s board representatives. The move was subsequently aborted after Organised Labour threatened a nationwide strike.