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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16Jan

Ghana. Approval for SSNIT pension reforms expected shortly

Discussions and consultations concerning a proposal put forward by the external Actuaries on the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) scheme who recommended a 19.2 percent contribution rate to replace the existing 11 percent rate being implemented are expected to be concluded early this year. The move is part of a number of amendments and reforms that are being considered for implementation in the National Pension Act, 2008 (Act 766) by sector Administrators – National Pension Regulatory Authority...

January 16, 2020
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08Jan

Ghana: Pay Employees’ Contributions Promptly – Ssnit Boss to Employers

The low level of compliance by employers to pay contributions of their employees is a threat to the sustainability of the pension scheme, Dr John Ofori-Tenkorang, Director-General of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has said. "Often, less than 50 per cent of employers pay their workers' contributions by the 14th of the ensuing month, which is the deadline for contributions payment," he said. Read Also Ghana. SSNIT To Pay ¢243m Pension In 2020 Dr Ofori-Tenkorang was speaking...

January 8, 2020
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03Jan

Ghana. SSNIT To Pay ¢243m Pension In 2020

The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has announced it will pay pensions in excess of GH¢ 243 million this yearp. The amount represents an indexation rate of 11℅ for the year under review. Chief Actuary of SSNIT, Stephen Yeboah, made this known at a press conference on Thursday, January 2, 2020, in Accra. Read also Africa’s Biggest Fund Manager Needs CEO for $150 Billion Assets According to him, the 2020 indexation rate was determined using the percentage change...

January 3, 2020
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December 2019

27Dec

Labor Supply Responses to Health Shocks : Evidence from High-Frequency Labor Market Data from Urban Ghana: World Bank Group Publications

By World Bank Group Publications, World Bank Group, World Bank, Heath Rachel, Mansuri Ghazala, Rijkers Bob Workers in developing countries are subject to frequent health shocks. Using 10 weeks of high-frequency labor market data that were collected in urban Ghana, this paper documents that men are 9 percentage points more likely to work in weeks in which another worker in the household is unexpectedly ill. The paper provides suggestive evidence that these effects are strongest among very risk averse...

December 27, 2019
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20Dec

Ghana. Government Staff Association Against Extension of Tier 2 Pension Implementation Date

The Civil and Local Government Staff Association, Ghana (CLOGSAG) says it will not compromise on the January 1, 2020 implementation of the TIER 2 Pension Scheme. Executive Secretary of CLOGSAG, Isaac Bampoe-Addo, said, the continuous extension of implementation of the Scheme, empowers the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to monopolise pension administration in the country, thereby rendering workers worse off. Addressing a press conference in Accra yesterday, he stated that, none of the public sector occupational pension...

December 20, 2019
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