The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has over 1.7 million active membership with very small percentage from the informal sector.
In September 2022, the Trust paid a total of GH¢ 281.07million to some 230,831 pensioners with the highest pension earner receiving GH¢ 142, 564.97 monthly while the lowest had GH¢ 300.00.
The Director-General of SSNIT, Dr John Ofori-Tenkorang revealed this in Ho on Tuesday when he launched SSNIT Mobile Service Week.
This annual event provides the opportunity to pitch camp at various locations at various branches across the country to bring the services of the Trust to the doorsteps of members and clients.
A total of 69 vantage locations across the 16 regions had been selected to provide services to clients.
Services offered include issuance of statements of accounts, registration of employers and workers, benefits processing initiation among others.
The event is under the theme “You deserve a pension, Join SSNIT today”, would end on Friday October 7, 2022.
Dr Ofori- Tenkorang explained that he was committed to continuously investing in new ideas with transparency that would be at the cutting edge of the Trust.
He indicated that self-employed workers in the country constituted the largest working population, but most of these workers had no social security cover as it was in their interest to register onto the scheme and enjoy the benefits.
According to him, “the Trust recognises that the self-employed and workers in the informal sector form the majority of the 10 million in Ghana and their colleagues in the formal sector, they also deserve a pension”.
The D-G noted that the SSNIT Scheme was one of the surest ways to reduce and prevent poverty among the aged.
He advised that instead of re- echoing the misconceptions of low pensions which tended to discourage most self-employed, saying “let’s share with them the value SSNIT provides and inform them that if their contributions or premiums were high, then their pensions would also be high.”
He further, said to enhance their service delivery, the Trust would soon introduce an enhanced and interactive self-service portal which would allow members and clients to perform a number of activities on SSNIT website.
These activities would enable employers to request, view and download clearance certificate, request for negotiation for outstanding debts and others.
The Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Letsa, in his remarks commended SSNIT for leveraging technology to make their services more accessible to clients.
According to him, technology had allowed for the reduction of administrative costs associated with printing of SSNIT cards and reduced the time pensioners had to wait to collect their first pension, as they could now get their pensions at a short time.
Togbe Kotoku XI, the Paramount Chief of Kpenoe Traditional Area, who chaired the function in his welcome address called on those working in the informal sector to make conscious efforts to go and register with SSNIT so that they could enjoy the scheme during their old age.
FROM KAFUI GATI, HO
