Dr. John Ofori-Tenkorang (M) receiving the transfer of key to host Liason Office in Ghana
The International Social Security Association (ISSA) has held a seminar in Accra aimed at identifying innovative solutions and practices in the use of digital and mobile technologies to extend social security coverage in the West African sub-region.
At the Regional Social Security Forum for Africa held in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, in May, 2023, one of the conclusions reached was that Social security in West Africa has made some progress over the past decade through the strengthening of legal frameworks and administrative structures.
Member countries concluded that despite the progress made, large segments of the population in the region, particularly, workers in the informal sector as well as self-employed workers remain without social security cover.
According to the Association, COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity for the development of banking services for insured persons and the introduction of new services based on mobile phone technologies.
Member countries therefore believe that technology did not only cushion people from the effect of the crisis, but also created new opportunities to extend social security coverage to the difficult-to-reach category of workers.
Apart from hosting the seminar, Accra was also chosen to host the Association’s Liason Office for the next three years.
Secretary General of the International Social Security Association (ISSA), Marcelo Abi-Ramia Caetano, in his opening remarks said Ghana was chosen to host the seminar in addition to host the Liaison Office due to its commitment and leadership in social security administration in enhancing social protection.
He also encouraged members to use their experience as social security administrators to increase social security coverage in West Africa while commending Cote d’Ivoire for hosting ISSA’s Liaison Office for the past years.
Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour Awuah, in his remarks noted that the region’s inability to cover a large percentage of the workforce under social security schemes is partly due to lack of digitalised procedures to ease the registration process.
“This indicates that leveraging digitalization to extend social security coverage is critical, investing in this to extend social security coverage is not an aspiration that can be deferred to the future”, he said.
He, therefore, called on social security institutions within West Africa to take advantage of the emergence of digital technologies to bridge the wide coverage gap.
Director-General of SSNIT, Dr. John Ofori-Tenkorang, said that though the population of Africa continues to increase at substantial rates, Africa records the lowest social security coverage globally.
He, therefore, charged participants to focus on emerging technology that would positively impact on service delivery among other interventions to increase the reach of social protection for the vast majority of people.
Apart from Ghana, some members of the Association present include Nigeria, Togo, Cote D’Ivoire, Burkina Faso Liberia among others.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah