December 2020

03Dec

Ghana: Pres Launches Cocoa Farmers Pension Scheme

A cocoa farmers pension scheme for farmers was yesterday launched here by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. In pursuit of Section 26 of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) Law, 1984 (PNDC L.81), which mandates COCOBOD to establish a contributory insurance for cocoa farmers, the government, in collaboration with COCOBOD and the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), set up the scheme. It is open to all cocoa farmers in the country to make contributions toward their retirement while COCOBOD makes...

December 3, 2020
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November 2020

10Nov

Ghana. SSNIT saves ¢200m after value for money audit, renegotiation of legacy investment-related costs

The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has saved some ¢200 million on legacy investment-related costs. This was achieved through value for money audit and renegotiations of such costs. According to the Director-General, Dr. John Ofori-Tenkorang the measure taken was relevant for the sustainability of the trust. “The cost-saving measures implemented by the leadership of the Trust have helped to improve the financial health and long-term sustainability of the Trust”, he said in a speech delivered at the...

November 10, 2020
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October 2020

05Oct

Ghana. Workers urged to invest in Tier-3 pension scheme

The President of Civil and Local Government Staff Association, Ghana(CLOGSAG), Dr Evans Dzikum, has asked workers to make a deliberate effort to invest part of their earnings in the voluntary Tier 3 pension scheme administered by private entities. He said that was the surest way to what he described as a happy old age as majority of workers under the present pension scheme would be entitled to only a quarter of their current incomes during retirement. Save towards pensions...

October 5, 2020
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September 2020

24Sep

Ghana: Press highlights plight of pensioners, removal of 7,000 ‘ghost’ names from govt’s payroll

The call on the government to take liability for the shortage in the payment of lump sums to pensioners and the removal of 7,000 ‘ghost’ names from the government’s payroll are some of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday. The Graphic reports that the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has called on the government to take liability for the shortage in the payment of lump sums to pensioners who started retiring from this year under the new...

September 24, 2020
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18Sep

Ghana. Government to develop micro-pensions policy for informal sector

Government is considering the development of a micro-pensions policy to guide efforts at improving informal sector coverage to unlock its huge potential. Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, disclosing this, said since 2017, government had been creating awareness on the Third-Tier pension scheme for occupational groups, which had whipped up the interest of informal sector workers not covered by any pension scheme. Addressing a “press briefing” in Accra , he said effective January next year,...

September 18, 2020
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July 2020

23Jul

World Bank makes recommendations to improve pensions coverage in Ghana

“If a new or existing informal sector scheme is given sole responsibility for covering the cocoa farmers, economies of scale could be achieved. This will allow outreach to other groups of informal sector workers in a financially viable manner”, the World Bank asserted in its pensions coverage in the informal sector Africa report for 2019. However the World Bank report indicated that the coverage of the elderly through contributory pension schemes is not expected to improve. But the state...

July 23, 2020
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June 2020

17Jun

Ghana. Public sector pensioners call for better packages from SSNIT

Scores of pensioners and public sector workers have expressed dismay at the pension package offered by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) saying they would embark on industrial action if the anomaly was not rectified. “There will be total lockdown of public sector activities on June 25, if SSNIT does not follow the correct procedure and formula in paying past credits to pensioners,” Mr Isaac Bampoe Addo, Chairman of the Forum for Public Sector Registered Pensions Schemes,...

June 17, 2020
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April 2020

23Apr

Ghana’s Social Protection And Public Choices In The Days Of Covid-19

We cannot know how society protects its weakest and vulnerable, those at the bottom of society from deprivation until a catastrophe such as COVID-19, the 'unseeable, undead, unliving blob', to use the words of Arundhati Roy, is unleashed on us. Read also South Africa. The dichotomy between what pension scheme members want and what they get Ghana has a sub-optimal social protection system, its inadequacy due to our informal and poor information system. COVID-19 has amplified these weaknesses, unleashing a...

April 23, 2020
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January 2020

20Jan

Ghana. Three-tier pension to increase retirement income security for workers – NPRA

The three-tier pension system will enhance pension benefits and increase retirement income security for workers both in the formal and informal sectors of the economy and improve on the nation's economic future. Mr Hayford Attah Krufi, Chief Executive Officer, National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), said the three-tier pension system, which was introduced in January 2010 as part of national pensions reform process, sought to ensure that every worker received retirement and related benefits. He said the objectives of the...

January 20, 2020
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17Jan

Piñera’s proposal fuels debate on low pensions in Chile

The controversy over low pensions in Chile, the most serious problem identified by the protesting social movement, has increased after President Sebastian Piñera announced changes to the country's pension system. The Chilean president announced on Wednesday evening that he would submit this week a bill to Congress seeking to improve all pensions and, especially, those of women, the middle class and dependent elderly. Piñera said this bill represents a 'structural change,' with a system based on State, worker and...

January 17, 2020
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