The Director General of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Dr. John Ofori-Tenkorang, has assured his outfit of his commitment to make contributors of the scheme better, most particularly, when they finally retire from active service.
According to the SSNIT Director General, who is an Investment Banker and Engineer, SSNIT could boast as the best pension scheme in the country with the highest resources in managing the contributions of the contributors for better futures.
To this end, he passionately called on Ghanaian workers, both in the public and private working community, to consciously not relent on their efforts to actively contribute towards making their retirement better.
The Director-General gave the assurance last Thursday during the 2023 Employers Breakfast Meeting here in Koforidua, capital of the Eastern Region.
The 2023 Employers Breakfast Meeting was on the theme: “Providing Pension for all; the Role of the Employer,” which witnessed participants from all walks of life.
The forum was part of a grand scheme by SSNIT to interact with its stakeholders, share ideas, and also use the platform to educate them on new initiatives meant to enhance the Tier One Pension Scheme.
Recounting the functions of the SSNIT, Dr. Ofori-Tenkorang explained that the scheme was a statutory public Trust, charged under the National Pensions Act, 2008 Act 766, with the administration of Ghana’s Basic National Social Security Scheme.
He continued that the Trust was currently the largest non-bank financial institution in Ghana, which was mandated to cater for the First Tier of the Three-Tier Pension Scheme.
The primary responsibility of the Trust was to replace part of the lost income of workers in Ghana due to old age, invalidity or death of a member where dependents received lump sum payments. It is also responsible for the payment of emigration benefits to a non-Ghanaian member who is leaving Ghana permanently.
The Pension Scheme, as administered by SSNIT, has an active membership of over 1.8 million as at April, 2023, with over 235,617 pensioners who regularly receive their monthly pensions from SSNIT.
Dr. Tenkorang said that it was an obligation for employers to pay SSNIT contributions to their employees according to law, adding that employers needed to comply with the law and it was, therefore, the responsibility of SSNIT to ensure that every worker in Ghana had social protection, and also focuses on providing social protection to workers.
Touching on the introduction of a new product dubbed SEED, Dr. Tenkorang stated that his office introduced it to provide income replacement and ensure that self-employed workers had a guaranteed source of income during old age or permanent disability.
He said the SEED initiative of SSNIT was focused on extending pension coverage to self-employed persons and workers in the informal sector on the Scheme, adding that about 34,000 active SSNIT contributors were self-employed, and also essentially a repackaging of the Tier 1 product.
The Director-General indicated that the SEED also provided life policy by paying the survivors of members who pass on (Survivors Lump Sum) and fulfilled the mandate placed on the Trust to provide pension for all workers in the country.
He said that SSNIT had over 1.8 million active contributors, of which the private sector had 1,171,273 (62.142%), the public sector 679,190 (36.034%), and self-employed 34,376 (1.824%).
He, therefore, called on self-employers, including consultants, architects, lawyers, traders, musicians, actors, taxi drivers, dressmakers, online business owners, artisans, mechanics and others workers, to join SSNIT with their contributions.
