Mr Hayford Attah Krufi, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Pension Regulatory Authority (NPRA), has disclosed that the national pension awareness week is part of the Authority’s ultimate quest for robust institutional visibility and income security for workers after their retirement.
NPRA’s Chief Executive said since Ghana embarked on pension reforms some few years back, there has been several efforts to get every Ghanaian worker onto the pension scheme.
“We do not want to leave out any Ghanaian adult worker who is able to work and earn income, he or she has a right to earn a decent pension.”
Mr Hayford Attah Krufi
Mr. Attah Krufi made this statement in his address at the launch of the nationwide pension’s awareness week, which was held in the Eastern Regional capital, Koforiduah last week. The week-long programme is set to start from today Monday 25th October to Friday 29th October.
This event is held as part of the globally observed international pensions awareness week celebrations which are held in September and October every year.
The pension’s week celebration, according to Mr. Attah Krufi, is tailored to ensure the full participation of formal and informal sector workers in the national pension scheme and guarantee their income security after retirement.
Also, the NPRA’s Chief Executive said the essence of the week’s event is to render to every worker, within the formal and informal sectors, the benefit of the national pension reforms which commenced in 2010.
On his part, Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, Minister of Employment and Labour Relations urged the informal sector community to patronise the pension scheme for decent pension income and security.
Pensions, according to Mr. Baffour is not exclusively reserved for formal sector workers but includes all people who also work outside the formal sector. He then urged every worker to patronise pension scheme as well as have trust in the activities of NPRA.
Educate the citizens on pensions
In a speech read on his behalf, Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance, he encouraged stakeholders to help inform citizens on pensions related matters for the industry’s growth and for ensuring pension income security for retired workers.
Touching on the devastating impact of the novel coronavirus, the finance minister said despite the adverse impact of Covid-19 on Ghana’s economy, the pension industry registered steady growth in 2020, as total pension assets under management grew from GH¢26.3 billion in 2019 to GH¢33.4 billion in 2020.
This, Mr. Ofori-Atta disclosed, can be attributed to the strong performance of the basic national social security scheme (BNSSS) and the private pension scheme.
According to the finance minister, the BNSSS ended the year 2020 with assets worth GH¢11.3 billion, representing about 26 per cent growth from the previous year.
The private pension funds on the other hand ended the year with GH¢22 billion worth of assets under management, representing an improvement of 24 per cent from the previous year.
Describing the informal sector, Mr Ofori-Atta said Ghana’s informal sector pension coverage stands at 6% of total pensions in Ghana’s economy where approximately 80% of the workforce lies within the informal sector.
This trend, according to the finance minister implies a high dependency rate as only a few people contribute to tier one and tier two as well as tier three pension schemes.
Also, Mr. Ofori-Atta iterated that over 90 per cent of pension assets are in government and related securities and bank deposits, noting that “this trend is not capable of leading the economic transformation agenda being pursued by the government”.
Mr. Ofori-Atta then noted that, Government is taking steps to change the trend and at the same time laying the foundation for channelling pension funds through the capital market to bring about transformational economic growth.
READ ALSO: Leverage Sustainable Financing to Grow Your Business – MD, GCB Bank
