The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) claims its initiative to expand its basic social security programme to include self-employed individuals who were previously not required by law to join the scheme has generated favourable results.
According to SNNIT, the Self-Employed Enrollment Drive (SEED), which was launched last year, has shot up the number of self-employed persons who are registered with the scheme.
SEED seeks to fulfil the mandate of SSNIT to extend pension coverage to all workers, including the self-employed.
Chief Actuary at SSNIT, Joseph Poku, said at a press conference on Monday, April 29, 2024, that the number of self-employed persons who were registered on the scheme was 14,000, but the introduction of SEED has shot the number up to 80,000.
This, he said, forms part of the measures taken to address some issues in the long term sustainability of the scheme.
He was responding to the latest report released by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which predicted that the reserve of SSNIT could be depleted by 2036.
But in his response, he assured Ghanaians that the scheme remains viable and will be able to pay pensions and other financial obligations beyond 2036.
The initiative will guarantee contributors who qualify as regular sources of income a monthly pension from old age until death and offer disability insurance to contributors in the event of invalidity, among others.
It will also provide life insurance by paying the survivors of members who pass on lump sums.
It also exempts, according to SSNIT, members from paying National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) premiums and, above all, ensures that every worker has social protection.
SEED focuses on enrolling self-employed persons and workers in the informal sector in the SSNIT Scheme to contribute regularly to their full earnings.
It provides social protection in the form of partial income in old age or retirement.
To ensure that self-employed persons and workers in the informal sector have social protection and a monthly pension, among others, the Trust is rolling out the Self-Employed Enrollment Drive (SEED).
The main aim of the initiative is to sign up 500,000 self-employed workers and reactivate 250,000 dormant contributors to provide them with social protection, reduce poverty, and reduce overdependence on benefactors (e.g., family relations, friends, the state) during old age and in the event of permanent invalidity.
Nominated dependents of members are also guaranteed protection in the form of a survivors lump sum paid after the death of a member.
By: Rashid Obodai Provencal/Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana