On February 27, 2024, President Nana Akufo-Addo delivered his second-to-last State of the Nation address, offering an overview of his government's performance over the past seven years.

The address was rich in statistics and strongly emphasized themes aimed at securing re-election for the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

The president provided updates on several key flagship projects, such as Free Senior High School education, One District One Factory, and Planting for Food and Jobs.

President Akufo-Addo also claimed credit for the increase in the number of informal sector workers enrolled in the country's tier-one pension scheme, the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) contributions. Fact-Check Ghana has investigated the accuracy of this assertion and provided the following findings:

Claim: “In May last year, SSNIT launched the Self-Employed Enrolment Drive (SEED), an initiative which seeks to improve coverage and increase the contributor base of the SSNIT Scheme.

"Since the launch of the SEED initiative, some six hundred thousand (600,000) self-employed persons have been enrolled onto the programme, and now have some form of social security cover.”

Verdict: Completely False

Explanation: The SEED programme was launched in May 2023 to fulfil SSNIT’S mandate to extend pension coverage to all workers, including the self-employed.

During the launch of the initiative in Kumasi, SSNIT's Director-General, Dr. John Tenkorang, highlighted that out of the 1.9 million active SSNIT contributors, only 32,000, representing approximately two percent, were self-employed. This suggests that many self-employed individuals may need state assistance or rely on family and friends for financial support during retirement.

To verify the President's claim that 600,000 people had registered for the SEED project due to the initiative, Fact-Check Ghana reached out to SSNIT through the right to information (RTI), seeking information on the number of self-employed individuals registered for SSNIT from 2016 to 2023.

Through this process, Fact-Check Ghana discovered that in 2023, less than 59,000 individuals would be registered under the SEED initiative. This initiative aims to encourage informal sector workers to become contributors to the tier-one pension scheme.

Year Number of contributors registered

2017 9,8402018 15,5962019 23,2502020 25,0872021 36,8232022 18,0182023 58,854Source: SSNIT

In a media interview last November, the SSNIT Director-General mentioned that the number of self-employed individuals registered with the fund had increased from around 14,200 in May 2023 to over 57,000 by October 2023.

This aligns with the figures SSNIT provided to Fact-Check Ghana for 2023.

However, this contradicts the President's statement of 600,000 registrations in his State of the Nation address.

When considering registrations from 2017 to 2023, the total number of self-employed individuals registered for SSNIT contributions is 187,468, still falling short of the President's claim for 2023 alone.

Additionally, data from the National Pension Regulatory Authority (NPRA) indicates that as of 2021, only about 600,000 out of an estimated 10.2 million informal sector workers are enrolled in at least one pension scheme.

Therefore, President Akufo-Addo's assertion that 600,000 self-employed individuals registered for SSNIT contributions in 2023 alone is entirely false.