The Ghana Employers’ Association (GEA) has applauded the management of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) for streamlining its service delivery and being more engaging to its members.

According to the association, it had witnessed improvement in the operations and delivery of service to its members and workers over the past four years.

SSNIT had significantly reduced the time it takes for contributors to process their benefits and provided other avenues to engage with employers.

Also, the number of employers paying SSNIT contributions for their workers had increased from 54,000 in 2017 to over 65,000 as at end of 2020 whilst workers contributing to the scheme had also witnessed a rise from 1.27 million to 1.63 million within the same period.

All these have contributed to the trust winning several awards, including outstanding Ghanaian-owned Corporate Organisation and Best Customer Service Provider for 2019 and 2020 respectively.

Speaking at the just-ended 11th quadrennial delegates' congress of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in the Ashanti Region last Tuesday, the President of GEA, Mr Daniel Acheampong encouraged SSNIT not to rest on its oars, but with a united front, do even more, by enrolling more members in both the formal and informal sectors.

“This is expected to reduce government expenditure on social intervention programmes such as the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), among others”, Mr Acheampong added.

Presently, the trust is seen as one of the most transparent public institutions. This is largely due to constant engagement with its stakeholders. Some of these engagements include regional educational tour with Organised Labour, frequent interactions with the National Pensioners Association (NPA), employers’ breakfast meetings and virtual education programmes for all workers, among others.

“They should continue with their novel trust-building stakeholder engagements, better a lot of pensioners, and help reduce old-age poverty in the long run,” he stressed.

He explained that the association is keenly interested in the viability of the SSNIT Scheme because, as employers, they are key stakeholders in the country’s economic development.

Review of compulsory retirement age

Mr Daniel Acheampong also touched on the proposal for the compulsory retirement age to be increased from 60 to 65 years, which has dominated media discussions in recent times.

He called for a national dialogue for all stakeholders “to comprehensively and dispassionately consider its pros and cons before any firm decision is made”.