Joseph Nkoo, the National Coordinator of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) Footballers Registrations, has prompted Ghanaian based football club owners to enrol their registered players onto the SSNIT scheme, in order to secure their future.
Mr Nkoo, disclosed that SSNIT is embarking on a nationwide programme which is aimed at enrolling all locally-based footballers, administrators, and the technical team onto the SSNIT Pension Scheme. He thus, appealed to club owners to give the local players a future to smile about by making their SSNIT contributions.
“We’re urging club owners to endeavour to enrol players that have registered with the Ghana Football Association (GFA) this season onto the SSNIT scheme. This is the most realistic way of giving footballers a future when they retire from the sport”.
Joseph Nkoo
The National Coordinator of SSNIT Footballers Registrations noted that he has scheduled a meeting with the President of the Ghana Football Association to help get new players onto the SSNIT scheme.
“We have booked an appointment with the GFA President, Kurt Okraku and to get access to his club – Dreams FC and that of Obed Nana Kwame Nketiah’s Berekum Chelsea FC, to encourage them to get, especially all their new players on board.”
Joseph Nkoo
SSNIT Director not Happy with Club Owners
While educating a group of players from different club levels at the SWAG Park in Accra, Mr. Nkoo asserted that most of the clubs in the country only needed to update their contribution reports, as most of them have been paying their players’ SSNIT contributions. He charged the club owners to go to any of the branches of SSNIT in the country. He subsequently urged the remaining 16 Ghana Premier League clubs to emulate the steps taken by Dreams FC and Berekum Chelsea FC.
“This, they could only do by visiting any of the 51 SSNIT branches nationwide to remove all players who had left their teams, from the list and replace them with newly-registered ones.”
Joseph Nkoo
Mr Nkoo accentuated that the Director General of SSNIT, Dr John Ofori Tenkorang, is not happy with the rate at which the sporting industry in Ghana is left behind when it comes to club owners contribution to SSNIT on behalf of their players “who can be best described as their workers.”
Mr Nkoo stressed that clubs are given adequate education with regards to the operation of SSNIT and the reason SSNIT was established and the benefits of SSNIT, before the registration process is rolled out.
“It’s no secret that all players – especially those in the Ghana Premier League, receive salaries as part of their contract obligations. As a result, the clubs are, therefore, mandated to pay their SSNIT contributions.”
Joseph Nkoo
The National Coordinator of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) Footballers Registrations went on to trash the long held notion that footballers careers are short. He stated that it “was wrong for people to always ascribe a footballer’s career as short-lived for which reason many were not motivated to pay their SSNIT contributions.”
“What we should all know is that, even if they stop playing within the shortest possible time and want to do any other business, they would use the same SSNIT numbers they’re enrolled on.”
Joseph Nkoo
Mr Nkoo called on Ghanaians to take SSNIT contributions seriously, as it is the surest way to prepare for life after retirement.
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