The Ghana Co-operative Credit Unions Association Limited is appealing to the government to seriously consider exempting its members from paying taxes.

The call, according to the Board Chairman of the association, Dr Bernard Bingab, is aimed at supporting and protecting investments.

Justifying how other African countries have granted tax reliefs to co-operatives, Dr Bingab described the approach with which the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has been clamping down on its members as unwarranted.

He was speaking at the 55th anniversary of the Ghana Co-operative Credit Unions Association at Koforidua in the Eastern region.

"One of my biggest appeals to our government is tax exemptions for co-operatives. Almost all African countries exempt co-operatives from tax. In recent years the Ghana Revenue Authority has clamped down on credit unions asking some to pay as high as one million cedis. Mr. Minister this is totally unwanted."

"This is a group that is there to help the country. Monies that we take as credit unions get back to the pool so we have difficulty as to why other African countries have exempted co-operatives and yet the credit unions are being asked to pay tax" he stated.

The anniversary also coincided with the celebration of this year's International Credit Union Day.

The Board Chairman also called on the government to strengthen its rules that govern the cyber security space to protect credit unions from cyber-crimes while expanding opportunities in the technological space.

"As we navigate the future of credit unions, it is important to acknowledge that just as with any evolving industry, there are both threats and opportunities. The threat of cyber-crimes is significant to us. We have recently engaged the Cyber Security Authority to see how they can help us. As credit unions, we see the way to go is technology but there's a threat of cyber-crime “he noted.

The Minister of Pensions, Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffuor-Awuah, encouraged the credit unions to work closely with the National Pensions Regulatory Authority by setting up a trust scheme to enable informal sector operators to save towards their future since many of the members of the credit unions are informal sector operators.

"We have roughly twelve million people working in Ghana but those who are on pensions are less than two million, which means that many of our people reach their pensions without being on any social security system."

"We have together with the National Pensions Regulatory Authority begun programmes to enrol especially all persons within the informal sector of the economy. But I see a window in the credit unions because there are quite a number of informal operators who also are members of credit unions" he said.