This year’s Pensioners engagement organised by Social Security and National Insurance Trust, SSNIT in Takoradi, was focused on reflecting the shared commitment to ensuring that pensioners maintain the deserved security and peace of mind that pensions provide.
The event aims to emphasize the importance of staying informed as pensioners and offers a common ground for retirees to interact with SSNIT officials.
Presenting a speech on behalf of the Director General of SSNIT, Ms. Juliana Kpedekpo said SSNIT is committed to transparency, open communication, and addressing pensioners’ concerns.
According to her, despite the challenges faced, the Trust had paid over 3.7 billion in pensions to over 250 thousand retired workers in Ghana as of August 2024.
She maintained that the Scheme aims to build a more inclusive system that benefits every worker, ensuring a secure retirement for all.
“Today, we shall have an in-depth discussion with you on that and other matters that naturally hold our interest with regard to the SSNIT scheme. We are committed to transparency, open
communication, and addressing your concerns, “
” Every scheme on earth has its challenges. Some countries don’t have a robust working population so they have had to delay the retirement of their citizens by increasing their retirement age. Others in Europe cannot afford to have a scheme like we are blessed to have here in Ghana. The fact is despite its challenges, our SSNIT Scheme remains strong. In fact, as at August 2024 alone, SSNIT has paid well over 3.7 billion in pensions to over 250 thousand retired workers in Ghana,”
” We are focused on making the scheme even stronger by expanding coverage to the vast numbers of self-employed workers in the country. We aim to build a more inclusive system that benefits every worker, ensuring a secure retirement for all,”
The Deputy Regional Secretary of the Association of Pensioners, Dogbatsey Noble King, whilst addressing the pensioners, implode the retirees’ welcome engagements with SSNIT and get better informed on the Scheme.
He called on Ghanaians to safeguard, strengthen and improve the Scheme to recognize and appreciate its value.
“It is essential to recognize that despite challenges, the SSNIT pension scheme has been a lifeline, providing security, dignity, and hope to us, retired workers. Since the scheme began paying monthly pensions in the early nineties, pensioners have been paid every single month according to what they have earned. Every single month. From 1991 to date, SSNIT has never reneged in the payment of pensions to Pensioners.
Life has always been uncertain. We can therefore not leave our future to chance. Life is abundant with cautionary tales of people who made their children their pension plan and have lived to regret it and of individuals who had to watch in pain as their thriving businesses collapsed along with their health.
SSNIT takes away all those uncertainties and pays us monthly with guaranteed yearly increments, “
As for my fellow pensioners and I, we will continue sharing our positive stories with those who may doubt the value of the scheme. We will remind the younger generation that, what they contribute today is an investment for their future—a future where they can retire with dignity, a future where unexpected illness does not leave them destitute, and a future where their families will be supported when they are no longer here to provide.”
On his part, the Chief Actuary of SSNIT, Joseph Poku assured the stakeholders’ of protecting the Scheme from collapsing.
