Education

Avail yourselves to contingencies of old age–Students advised

The Director-General of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Dr John Ofori-Tenkorang, has advised tertiary students to be conscious of retirement planning and social security to bequeath them better future.

He urged students not to perceive the future and old age as distant and somewhat unlikely happenings, and was imperative to plan as early as possible, remember retirement in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble years approach, when you’ll not have to say I find no pleasure in retirement, everybody is exposed to the contingencies of old age, invalidity and death.

Dr Ofori-Tenkorang gave the advice when he addressed students at a forum dubbed: ‘SSNIT Info Shop’ held in Sunyani on Saturday, an information sharing platform, primarily designed to sensitise and educate tertiary students on retirement planning and social security.

The forum which was on the theme: ‘SSNIT, Your Security for Tomorrow’ was an initiative of SSNIT and the University Students Association of Ghana (USAG) with the Sunyani event attended by students from the Catholic University College of Ghana (CUCG), University of Energy and Natural Resources (UNER), and Sunyani Technical University (STU).

Dr Ofori-Tenkorang emphasised on the number of years a worker contributed was a key factor in calculating a pension benefit and students must endeavour to start early contribution, even if they were doing part-time petty businesses, adding that “the preceding first phase of the engagement has covered more than 7,000 university students.

“The move is among adopted strategies to help sustain the Trust, we realised the potential and possible impact the interactions with the next generation of contributors and entrepreneurs can have on our scheme going forward, I will advise you to look beyond securing employment in the public sector and embrace the ‘can do spirit’ so as turn innovative ideas into businesses to make you entrepreneurs,” he noted.

The Pro Vice-Chancellor of UNER, Prof. Opuni Frimpong, admonished students as they prepared for the job market not to be perturbed about challenges like limited job opportunities because “unemployment is a global phenomenon but the resilience of the people in a particular country makes the difference, thus underpinning the importance for you to be resilient for breakthroughs.”

The President of USAG, Kingsley Sarpong Akowuah, said it was necessary to create a path for students to plan and secure their retirement, hence the partnership with SSNIT and was hopeful that the forum would help students to clear misconceptions about the activities of SSNIT.

FROM DANIEL DZIRASAH, SUNYANI

Show More
Back to top button