IN a bid to ensure that every worker in Ghana enjoys the right to social security among other benefits, the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) is unrelenting in deepening its engagement with the country’s informal sector workers.
The latest move by the Trust is a strategic partnership with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) of Ghana.
SSNIT on Monday organised a stakeholder forum at the Accra Technical University to woo the self-employed onto the scheme who before were not obligated by law to join the scheme.
The initiative, dubbed Self-Employed Enrolment Drive (SEED), seeks to fulfill the mandate of SSNIT to extend pension coverage to all workers, including the self-employed.
Director-General of the Trust, Dr John Ofori-Tenkorang reiterated the need for all Ghanaian workers to sign unto a pension scheme, to guarantee comfortable and meaningful retirement.
We realise that for such people in the self-employed category, they are their own CEOs , their own HR , accountants and labourers so they don’t have a dedicated HR department to be making sure that the requisite contributions are remitted to SSNIT.
“SSNIT is making it easy for such workers to sign up; all they need is their Ghana Card and then we have also made it easy for them to contribute via mobile money which is e-levy exempt,” Dr Ofori-Tenkorang explained.
For contributors to be able to sign up without stress, as they may not be able to leave their places of work, “what we have arranged is that if they can put themselves together officers from SSNIT will go to them and sign them up to make sure that their future is secured.”
The objective is that we should get to a point in this country where people who are self employed can avail themselves to the same pension products that formal workers have access to.
Dr Ofori-Tenkorang stressed the need to reduce poverty and over-dependence on family
relations and friends during old age which would also reduce government’s expenditure on social support programmes
The SSNIT scheme (Tier 1) is open to all workers in Ghana and self-employed persons and workers in the informal sector have the right to join and contribute to the SSNIT Scheme
Self-employed persons and workers in the informal sector are not limited by law to contribute to only Tier 3
The SSNIT scheme is not an investment or savings scheme; it provides insurance for your income and pays pension in your old age or in the event of permanent invalidity
