Samuel Waterburg (3rd right) and his team of dedicated staff
People’s Pension Trust (PPT), a company licensed by the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) Ghana, says it intends to provide 500,000 Ghanaians in both the formal and informal sectors with tailor-made pension products by 2020.
PPT, a subsidiary of People’s Pension Holding BV based in the Netherlands, wants to be recognized as an organization that successfully reduces old-age poverty by offering flexible and high-quality pension products for both formal and informal sector workers.
Currently, 27,000 people, representing 0.001 percent of the more than 10 million in the informal sector, have pensions.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PPT, Samuel Bediako Waterburg, who made this known recently at pensions’ forum in Ghana, stated: “Our goal is to provide affordable pension products to 4 million people in the informal sector in 8 to 10 countries by 2027.”
He said, “PPT is supported by some of the best pension insurers and administrators of the Dutch Pension Scheme. This wealth of knowledge at our disposal, coupled with our thorough understanding of the Ghanaian local context, informs the development of our pension products and services.”
People’s Pension Trust Ghana, he revealed, manages and administers a number of schemes, including the Personal Pension Scheme, Master Trust Occupational Pension Scheme, Master Trust Provident Fund Scheme and the Third Party Scheme Administration.
“People’s Pension Trust is particularly committed to ensuring all workers, particularly informal sector workers, can retire in comfort, hence the introduction of its Personal Pension Scheme.”
Mr Waterburg also called on government to provide incentives for people to embrace pensions and also encouraged the corporate trustee of pensions to work hard at roping a lot of people into pensions.
Ernest Amartey Vondee, an official of the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), said pension funds’ contribution to gross domestic product is expected to increase from the current 10 percent at the end of 2017 to 30 percent in the next two years.
He also indicated that total pensions assets were projected to increase to about GH¢34 billion by the end of this year.
“This requires an effective regulatory framework to support and secure pension funds to guarantee retirement income security for workers in Ghana.”
He added that NPRA was working to decentralize its operations through the establishment of regional offices to improve visibility and training of pension scheme providers.