The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) plans to enhance its efforts to include more individuals in the informal sector and self-employed category in Ghana into the state-operated Tier One pension scheme.

Building on the achievements of the previous year, marked by the introduction of the Self Employed Enrolment Drive (SEED), SSNIT envisions a more assertive strategy to promote the initiative.

The goal is to draw in a greater number of individuals in this demographic, ensuring a more secure future for them upon retirement.

The Director-General of SSNIT, Dr John Ofori-Tenkorang, who announced the Trust’s resolve last Thursday, said “We have developed a good initiative that will help many people to guarantee a better future in retirement and we must sustain the campaign this year and beyond.”

Expansion

The count of self-employed individuals enrolled in SSNIT witnessed a more than fourfold increase in the last two quarters of the previous year.

Starting from approximately 14,200 in May, the figure surged to over 57,000 by the end of the last month, and additional enrollments are anticipated.

This remarkable growth is credited to the vigorous efforts of the management of the state-operated pension scheme, with plans for further intensification in the coming year and beyond.

The campaign's primary objective is to include a substantial number of workers from the informal sector of the economy into the pension scheme.

The director-general emphasized that although SSNIT has successfully enrolled tens of thousands of self-employed individuals into the scheme within a brief period, the upcoming task remains formidable. He asserted that “we will not relent but continue to push harder to increase the numbers into the hundreds of thousands and the millions per our laid down plan of action because we see the potential”.

According to the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), approximately 600,000 out of the 6.7 million self-employed individuals in the country currently possess some form of pension coverage.

This implies that a substantial 6.1 million self-employed persons lack any form of pension coverage, presenting an opportunity that the managers of the tier one pension scheme intend to capitalize on.

Of the 6.7 million independent contractors in the nation, the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) projects that 600,000 have pension coverage.

The managers of the tier one pension scheme hope to take advantage of the staggering 6.1 million self-employed individuals who do not have any kind of pension coverage.

Sustainability

Regarding the sustainability of the pension scheme, Dr. Ofori-Tenkorang reiterated the commitment of the scheme's managers to ensure the continued viability of the pension system, which is crucial for both formal and informal workers.

He affirmed that the scheme remains solvent and viable, emphasizing the Trust's responsibility to sustain it as one of the continent's premier state-run pension programs, despite challenges from various sources.

The director-general of SSNIT pointed to initiatives like SEED and highlighted that the current scheme could be further enhanced with increased participation, hence the ongoing campaign.

Additionally, he mentioned that SSNIT is actively ensuring that its investments yield optimal performance, generating the necessary funds to consistently meet its obligations to workers on pension.

Dr Ofori-Tenkorang said much as some of the investments of SSNIT were not performing as expected, those equities were minute, “however, we are working around the clock to determine the appropriate action to take in the best interest of the scheme”, he assured.

He argued once more for people who haven't joined the scheme to do so and not use unfavorable rumors about how it is run to avoid it.