The Director General of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) Dr John Ofori-Tenkorang, has threatened to resign, if the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) can prove its provider fund provides is better benefits than pensioners on SSNIT .
According to him, he is throwing the challenge, because it is virtually impossible to find the teachers’ provident fund, more beneficial than what SSNIT offers.
Not only is Dr Ofori-Tenkorang challenging GNAT to demonstrate how its teacher’s provident fund is better than SSNIT, but also making the claim that there is no insurance or fund management company which gives more to pensioners than SSNIT.
Speaking at an investment forum on Wednesday, June 28, 2022, which was organized by GNAT, the SSNIT boss, said his background as an investment banker, has shown that no other pension and insurance product, can be compared to the benefits SSNIT currently provides to pensioners.
The forum was under the theme, “Ghana’s Workers Pensions: Challenges and Solutions for Growth in the Next Decade “.
Dr Ofori- Tenkorang’s comments was in reaction to a GNAT participant at the forum, who made the assertion that if not for the fact that their employer which is government pays part of their contribution, she would have invested her money in teachers provident and investment fund, in order to enjoy better benefits after retirement.
The concern of the GNAT participant at the forum, was that many workers are not guaranteed comfortable retirement packages after they go on pension.
But justifying why SSNIT remains better, Dr OforiTenkorang, said for example that the scheme is able to pay a contributor for his or her entire life in the event that the contributor is incapacitated and having just been with the scheme for 12 months.
Additionally, he said the scheme is able to pay a contributor for 15 years after he or she dies before the retirement age and continues to pay dependents of the deceased person for another 15 years .
All of these, he pointed out, are benefits which cannot be found in any other insurance or investment product being run by other institutions.
On the issue of the often held criticism that people work for many years, but take meager pension when they go on retirement, he explained that the issue is not necessarily about long years, but primarily the quantum of contribution which is made on one’s salary .
“ Pension is securing your income. What you put in determines what you will get after your retirement “, he stressed.
Of the 228, 367 pensioners as at 2022, Dr OforiTenkorang, revealed that some pensioners receive between Ghc35, 000 and Ghc42, 000, wholesome pensioners also receive between Ghc300 and Ghc500 after working for over 35 years.
All of these, he emphasized, were calculated on the salaries of the contributors, while in active service.
He urged the public to report to the scheme news about dead relatives in order to stop the situation of paying ‘ghost ‘beneficiaries.
According to him, the scheme does not have a way of finding out if a beneficiary is dead, until it is reported.
He, however, indicated that a policy which he said was introduced in 2018 to validate the continued payment of pension to beneficiaries every year by taking bio data, has saved the scheme a whopping amount of over Ghc32 million.
