Opanin Kwabena Nkrumah with his pilot pension card
A PILOT project of the yet-to-be-rolled out pension scheme for cocoa farmers across the country was launched yesterday at New Edubiase in the Ashanti Region.
Dubbed: ‘Cocoa Farmers Pension Scheme’, the contributory insurance scheme which is within the framework of the social security scheme, is expected to cover 1.5 million cocoa farmers in the country and guarantee them retirement benefits.
Charles Osei Akoto, Chief Executive Officer of Stallion Trust, which is working with the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCBOD) to implement the pension scheme, said the rollout would start on October 1, 2021 in line with the commencement of the 2021/2022 cocoa crop season.
According to him, the new scheme, sponsored by COCOBOD, will benefit only registered cocoa farmers and their dependents.
He disclosed that the trust would be governed by an 11-member Board of Trustees who would be appointed by the Government in consultation with COCOBOD.
Mr. Akoto said the scheme in the coming days would make it difficult for non-registered cocoa farmers without the pension card to sell their cocoa beans.
He explained that cocoa farmers have the option of selecting between 2.5% and 7.5% as their voluntary contribution to be taken out of their cocoa beans sales in addition to the mandatory contribution.
He said farmers might also opt to have their annual bonuses due them to be paid into the scheme as an additional contribution.
He revealed that 25% of the total contribution would be put into personal savings account, while the remaining 75% would be credited to the retirement account.
A member of Stallion Consultancy, Arnold Mensa-Bonsu, underscored the need for farmersto allow withdrawals up to 25% of their Personal Savings Account balance after the initial five years of the scheme implementation.
He charged the farmers to withdraw only 20% from their Personal Savings Account in every two years.
Opanin Kwabena Nkrumah, a 103-year-old cocoa farmer from Adansi Atobiase, was one of the first people to enrol on the Cocoa Farmer Pension Scheme.
The centenarian expressed delight at having gone through the process. He urged the younger generation of cocoa farmers to seize the opportunity to register with the scheme and make their contributions for a comfortable retirement.
“Look at me. At my age, I still harvest and sell cocoa. I have been farming for over 50 years. I still love cocoa farming and the pension scheme is a step in the right direction. We have been waiting for it for a long time and we are grateful to the government for it,” he said.
The ongoing pilot registration exercise will go on for 14 days. Within the period some 2,800 volunteer farmers will be enrolled on the scheme. The farmers will provide feedback to help improve the designed operational framework for the nationwide registration scheduled for October of this year.
By Ernest Kofi Adu