The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has bemoaned the increasing rate at which workers refuse to pay pension.
Speaking at a workshop to educate the media on the relevance of SSNIT payments, Head of Public Affairs at SSNIT, Charles Akwei Garshong, expressed worry about the low insurance contributions of salaried workers in the country.
According to the Head of Public Affairs at SSNIT, out of the over 9.9 million salaried workers, only about 1.9 million pay their pension regularly.
Charles Akwei Garshong explained that what it means is that, if the narrative does not change, only 1.9 million workers stand the chance of benefiting from their pension contributions when they retire at 60.
Charles Akwei Garshong, therefore, warned of dire economic consequences for uninsured workers when they hit the retirement age.
“At the moment, we have a very limited number that is about 1.9 million workers contributing the pension scheme. When you look at the breakdown, only close to 1.2 million employees in the private sector with only 38,000 self-employed contributing to the scheme.”
Charles Akwei Garshong
Charles Akwei Garshong believes regular engagement with the media can help improve pension contributions in the country.
“Once we sustain this education, and we always focus on reaching out to them irrespective of where they find themselves, whether online and their various places of work, we believe we will be able to help reduce old age poverty in the future by increasing more people on the scheme.”
Charles Akwei Garshong
With SSNIT’s current base contribution rate of 13.5%, the private and public sectors contribute 62.14% and 36.03% respectively to SSNIT, while the self-employed contributes 1.82%.
SSNIT Targets Half a Million Self-Employed Workers
Meanwhile, the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) is intensifying activities to register more than half a million self-employed workers by the end of the year under the Self- Employed Enrolment Drive (SEED).
The focus on pension plan for the self-employed is to provide income replacement and a guaranteed source of income during old age or permanent disability for the self- employed mostly in the informal sector.
Out of an estimated workforce of 11.5 million, according to the 2021 Population and Housing Census, there are over 9.9 million working population with 6.7 million being self-employed in the informal sector, which forms about 85 per cent of the Ghanaian economy.
Mr Charles Akwei Garshong stressed that increasing the enrolment of self-employed is needed to help SSNIT fulfil its mandate of providing pensions for all workers in the country.
“It’s our responsibility to ensure that every worker in Ghana has social protection. The SEED would help reduce old-age poverty and over-dependence on benefactors such as family relations, friends, and the State.”
Charles Akwei Garshong
Mr Charles Akwei Garshong highlighted the modalities for contributing as a self-employed to include declaration of a monthly salary, paying 13.5 per cent of the declared salary monthly and subscribing to a flexible periodic payment option of either a monthly contribution, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually.
Those payments, he said, could be made through mobile money wallet, debit cards, partner banks, at SSNIT offices and via USSD code. He, however, pointed out that declared salaries could only be adjusted annually.
Mr Garshong explained that the SEED initiative would include a “Ye wo Abonten” campaign, which would be held on the last Friday of every month where staff would visit targeted business enclaves and other public centres to educate and enroll self-employed and informal sector workers.
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