Dr. John Ofori-Tenkorang, the Director-General of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has observed that even though there are different players in the pension system compared to the days when SSNIT was the only institution, the scheme is still the only one with the longevity risk of taking care of its beneficiaries, for as long as they are alive.
He said the SSNIT scheme itself was never broken but rather “there is something inside it which might have made the scheme look bad,” and that thing is the worker’ deductions that employers declared to SSNIT as workers’ salaries.
Addressing the 2021 Employers’ Breakfast Meeting at the Golden Tulip Hotel last Tuesday, in Kumasi, Dr. Ofori-Tenkorang said the beauty of the scheme is that “what you get when you enter is already defined, irrespective of whoever is at the helm of affairs” at SSNIT.
The Director-General said there is no doubt that SSNIT has the best pension policy in town, except that it has not told its success story well to the public, emphasising that it is the only scheme which can take care of the beneficiary for a lifetime, even up to 100 years.
He explained that it is good business for the employer that takes advantage of the pension scheme because the employer transfers the headache of the workers’ future to SSNIT and advised employers to see it as beneficial and not look at it in any other way.
Dr. Ofori-Tenkorang said SSNIT is rolling out measures to allow lots of informal sector workers in the country to be hooked onto the scheme and advised people in that sector to take advantage of the gesture.
He said very soon the scheme would engage in a vigorous exercise to sell their various products to the public, particularly those in the informal sector.
The Director-General said he can understand why people do not want to contribute their money or join the scheme because of the pain contributors go through when they are coming for their money, and added that now the average processing time for pension claims is ten days and one does not need the assistance of any middleman.
The Deputy Director-General in charge of Operations and Benefits, Mrs. Laurette Korkor Otchere expressed worry that some employers were not willing to pay SSNIT contributions for some non-permanent employees and emphasised that all category of workers, whether permanent or non-permanent, have the right to social security and must, therefore, not be denied that right.
She announced that from January next year, the NIA card number will become the social security number of all contributors of the scheme and advised all employers to prevail on their employees to get the NIA card to avoid any inconvenience in the payment of workers’ contributions to SSNIT or payment to the pensioners.
From Thomas Agbenyegah Adzey, Kumasi
