General Secretary of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) Morgan Ayawine has asked critics of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to be constructive when criticising the institution.

He said SSNIT is an institution that has come far, and the speed and the allegation with which SSNIT and its management are working is commendable.

Ayawine indicated that SSNIT has contributed significantly to the social and economic development of this country.

He stated "Do not let us talk down SSNIT, which is our wonderful baby. SSNIT does not belong to the government, and that is why the government does not have a long hand. I believe that the SSNIT board is independent, and that is very good. Of late, we’ve been talking about SSNIT out there, but what we need to do is we can criticise; anybody in the system not criticised will not do well. Criticism is good for you to correct the system.

But we should not criticise SSNIT heavily because when we do that, we will run down our own institution, and SSNIT is the institution that caters for our future.”

He went on to state that ICU was prepared to engage SSNIT on ways to make SSNIT better so that it can render quality services for contributors and stakeholders.

He appealed to his colleagues in the labour fraternity to hasten slowly on how it criticises SSNIT.

He said dialogue was crucial whenever there were matters, underscoring the need for them to engage with SSNIT on any matter and avoid policing issues.

He made the remarks at the 2024 edition of the annual Employers Breakfast Meeting held in Accra last week.

On his part, the Director General, Kofi Bosompem Osafo Maafo, highlighted that the goal of the Trust is to offer better services, streamline pension processes, and reduce administrative burdens for employers.

He cited the impressive financial performance in recent years, noting that the trust moved from a deficit in 2021 to a surplus of GH¢230 million in 2022.

According to him, SSNIT projects a stronger surplus of GH¢864 million in 2023, with a positive outlook for 2024.

“The key point I would like to make is that we continue as a team within the trust to manage our investments and our operations prudently and very effectively, and this is showing in our figures. If you look at our figures in 2022 and 2023, indeed, in 2022 we produced a surplus of about GH¢230 million, and that came from a deficit position in 2021.

In 2023 we are looking at a surplus position of about GH¢864 million, and in 2024 we expect a similarly strong performance, based on the figures we have to date,” the DG said.

“This is driven by the very hard work that the team around me has put in. It is driven by improvements in our contribution collection, improvements in net investment income, improvements in our cost control, and in general improvements in the way we run the trust.

“And so I want to take this opportunity again to reassure you that each of us working for you as employers and also the pensioners are doing our best to improve the scheme and its sustainability, and indeed the figures show that.”