Let’s support SSNIT to improve viability

 THE assurance by the Di­rector General of the So­cial Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Kofi Osafo Maafo, that the SSNIT is financially viable to meet its obli­gations to pensioners in spite of its challenges is heart-warming.

It is also reassuring to hear that since its transformation from a provident fund as it was the case at the time of its establishment in 1972 to a pension scheme in 1991, SSNIT has never defaulted in paying pensions and benefits to the members of its pension scheme.

The Ghanaian Times receives the news with all joy because all along some people have been harbouring ill notions about the Trust based on which they misin­form or disinform the public.

For instance, some claim that the SSNIT is involved in bad investments done with the con­tributions of scheme members and that the future of its pension payments was in the balance.

The situation became worse this year following the decision by the Board and Management of the SSNIT to seek a strategic investor to manage its hotels.

There have been numerous media commentaries and write-ups, some of which, instead of educating the public about the process, have chosen to attack the SSNIT, accusing it of mismanagement, bad invest­ment, and questionable decisions causing financial and operational crises likely to undermine the via­bility of its pension scheme.

It is worthy of note that the efforts being made by the SSNIT such as bringing in workers from the informal sector like those involved in self-employment in­dicates a future planned to accu­mulate funds from those in active service to pay pensioners while the active workers wait for their turns for as long as they tarry.

It must be acknowledged that every Ghanaian must help SSNIT to grow and strengthen its posi­tion to pay the benefits provid­ed under its pension scheme, namely superannuation/old age, and invalidity pensions, as well as survivors’ lump sums.

It should please every Gha­naian adult undertaking any economic activity to join the SSNIT pension scheme because its benefits, particularly in an era when assistance from family members and friends are hard to come by due to the hardship in the system.

Before the colonists intro­duced pension, it was the family that provided support when members became old or suffered disability and threatened by eco­nomic deprivation.

It is well known that the tradi­tional extended family practices ensured socioeconomic protec­tion for needy members.

Today, especially with the decline of family system, where there is a gradual shift away from reliance on the extended family, solace can only be found in institutionalised social security systems and the SSNIT pension scheme cannot be discounted in this regard in the country.

The Ghanaian Times, therefore, believes that instead of vilifying or discrediting the SSNIT and its pension scheme, we should encourage it to improve its pay­ments by any means possible to attract particularly workers in the informal sector.

It is a fact that retirees’ pen­sions reflect their basic salaries during active service, but it is sad to learn that currently the low­est-paid pensioner takes home GH¢409.10, while the average monthly pension is GH¢1,756.38.

These figures spell poverty un­like elsewhere like Netherlands, Iceland, Denmark and Israel, as well as Botswana in Africa where pension time is a period of enjoyment.