Mr. John Ofori-Tenkorang, the Chief Executive Officer, Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), has stated that the disparities in pension allowances is not legitimate basis for reforms of the scheme.
According to the CEO, the fact that there are wide gaps between the highest and lowest amount people receive as SSNIT pension allowance does not indicate that the scheme needs reforms.
“SSNIT is an insurance company which insures the income of workers and your benefit at the end of service is determined by the amount of money you insure. So, if you come to insure GHc500.00 you will be paid the equivalent of the GHc 500.00 and if you insure GHc 20,000.00 you will be paid the equivalent of GHc 20,000.00. So, the gap is always going to be there as long as people earn different salaries. It is not the basis for calling for reforms.”
Mr. John Ofori-Tenkorang
Mr Ofori-Tenkorang made the observation at a stakeholder meeting to engage Muslim leaders on the theme: ‘Extending pension coverage to the self employed and informal sector workers; the role of Muslim leaders.’
The meeting was part of a series of stakeholders meeting to engage the leaders of various groups, which play very influential roles in society, to enlighten them on the benefit of the scheme and the need to guarantee their future with SSNIT.
“This conversation is about how we are going to work together to extend pension coverage to all Ghanaian workers, including the people who are self-employed who work in the informal sector, which happened to be the majority of Ghanaian workers.”
Mr. John Ofori-Tenkorang
Income Security for Every Worker in Ghana
The CEO noted that the SSNIT law charged them to make sure that they ensure income security for every worker in Ghana.
“Ghana’s population is about 30 million with 11.5 million workers. Out of this only 1.7 million of them come to SSNIT to insure their income, the rest do not have any hope for income replacement in the future, and this is something we need to change.
“Its survivability is also dependent on the young people joining the scheme to make it sustainable into the future. So as part of extending our tentacles to reach these people, we figured that if we engage the leadership of these groups, they will help us spread the good news of SSNIT.”
Mr. John Ofori-Tenkorang
Mr Ofori-Tenkorang noted that so far, 63 percent of contributors belonged to the private sector wile only 36 percent work in the public sector. Only one percent self-employed, indicating that majority of self-employed people had not come to insure their incomes for the future.
Mr. Ofori-Tenkorang noted they wanted to change the narrative that SSNIT was opened to only public sector workers.
The CEO explained that one must be between the ages of 15 and 45 to join the scheme, and SSNIT keeps 13.5 percent of the income generated while 2.5 percent was allocated to the National Health Insurance Scheme.
“The law enjoins us to do so to be able to have a society that is stable and robust, reduce old age poverty and prevent people from relying so much on government interventions.”
Mr. John Ofori-Tenkorang
The SSNIT CEO averred that the benefit of the SSNIT pension scheme include old age pension, emigration lump sum, invalidity, survivors, old age lump sum pension, among others.
Mr Ofori-Tenkorang disclosed that SSNIT is planning to roll out a comprehensive campaign using multiple channels, including traditional and new media, activators, walk-in and phone calls, convenient registration and payment platforms partnership and collaborations among others to improve access to their schemes.
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