The Deputy Central Regional Minister, Mr. Aquinas Tawiah Quansah, has launched the “Ghana Hoteliers’ Pension Fund” (GHPF) with a call on the Ghana National Hoteliers’ Association to “walk the talk” and ensure that they contribute to the scheme to make it beneficial to their employees.

He said the hotel business was capital intensive and therefore they needed to seek government’s support through interactions to enable them to create more employment.

The GHPF has Axis Pension Trust Limited as its trustees, Databank Asset Management Services as Fund managers and Stanbic Investment Management Services Limited as custodians.

The launch was performed at the National Executive Council Meeting of the Association at Elmina on Thursday.

It is estimated that the hotel industry employs about 42,000 people with 33,000 being full time employees and the rest part time and temporary or casual employees.

The meeting was on the theme “Improving the retiring benefits of the Ghanaian hotel employee.”

The National Chairman of the Ghana Hotels Association, Mr. Herbert Acquaye, said 62% of employees in the sector are below the age of 35 years whilst 40% leave to join other industries within five years of being employed.

He said the Association faces challenges like the shortage of career oriented employees to fill vacancies, and that, it had become imperative for those in the industry to improve on conditions of service to attract and retain quality career focused staff.

Mr. Acquaye said the three companies it had engaged, had the capability and trade records to administer their pension fund to the benefit of staff, and called on all hoteliers to get on board and also create provident fund schemes to further enhance their service conditions.

An official of Databank, Rev. Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh, said improving one’s pension fund was very critical in securing them a better future and described the three tier pension scheme as a “brilliant structure’

He explained that, the tier one and two are defined or mandatory benefits whiles the tier three is an incentive to put money aside as a solid retirement income.

Mr. Afriyie Oware, the Chief Executive Officer of Axis Trust, urged the Association to ensure that the retirement benefits of their employees are well managed.

The Central Regional Chairman of the Association, Mr. Ben Aidoo, said Ghana had an enviable hospitality industry, hence the need for hoteliers to continue to take measures to improve upon their services.**