Accra, May 27, GNA - Major General Peter Blay, Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) of the Ghana Armed Force (GAF) on Wednesday announced the introduction of a special fund in June to ensure a secure and dignified retirement benefits for service personnel. He said work on the draft Trust Deed, rules and regulations, as well as troops' sensitization on the fund in the entire directorate of GAF had been completed.

Speaking at a ceremony in Accra to inaugurate an 11-member Board of Trustees for the Fund, Maj. Gen. Blay noted that the idea of the fund was to help explore effective ways of saving money while in active service to beef up pension benefits. The Fund, to be known as the Forces Provident Fund, will help supplement government conventional fund and benefits which are often inadequate in guaranteeing service personnel strong financial security during retirement.

Membership of the fund would be compulsory for personnel of GAF who had completed six months paid service training. Maj. Gen. Blay said the condition of the fund would be in line with government's Long Term Saving Act as approved under the new Pension Act. Personnel, he said, would be required to contribute five per cent of their salary, "however, individuals could make an additional contribution of five or seven percent".

He said government had pledged to increase contribution by personnel by about five per cent. The CDS said actuarial analysis and other feasibility studies conducted indicated that the fund had the potential to substantially enhance the retirement benefit of GAF personnel.

He urged the Board, under the chairmanship of Maj. Gen. J.N Adinkra, the Chief of Army Staff, to review and ratify the Trust Deed for the smooth operation of the fund. Members of the Board are Brig. Gen. Emmanuel Quist, Brig. Gen. Nyamekye-Yeboah, Col. Agyekum Yeboah, Lt. Col. Sampson Bibila and Naval Capt. K. Osei Sarfo. Other members are Group Capt. M.M. Nagon, Chief Warrant Officer Adu Yaw Daniel, Mr Peter Ayeitie, Mr George Wedzi and Mr Richard Adu-Poku.