Dr. Kwame Addo Kufuor
The recent novelties in the service delivery of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) are being appreciated by many workers and pensioners across the country.
The periodic and consistent updates about contributions and lately the 2019 pension indexation are new features of the SSNIT since it came under a new management after the exit of the previous government.
Recently, the Tema branch of the National Pensioners Association (NPA) expressed appreciation.
The pensioners are excited about the public education programme of the trust which recently saw the General Manager, Benefits, Robert Owusu-Sekyere, explaining some recent novelties by the trust to them.
At the Tema Community One branch of the NPA, the general manager educated the pensioners about the rationale behind the 2019 pension indexation which until the programme was not understood by many.
The pensioners learnt about indexation and what informed the 11 per cent increment of pensions for 2019.
He told his hosts that “indexation was a technique to adjust pension payments in order to maintain the purchasing power of pensioners,” adding that pensions are normally indexed to wage inflation or some other rates such as price inflation.
Continuing, he said that three factors informed the calculation of indexation, namely the average salary growth of active contributors which stood at 12.66 per cent, the annual average change in Consumer Price Index which was 9.50 per cent and the financial implication on the fund in terms of liquidity and sustainability of the scheme.
He assured them that their monies were safe and were being put into the right investments to yield good returns and ensure the sustainability of the scheme.
The Chairman of the Tema branch of the NPA, Emmanuel Anuma, was full of praise for SSNIT for gracing the occasion.
Since the new management assumed office at SSNIT, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Kwame Addo-Kufuor, and his team have witnessed marked improvement.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) had cause to praise them for their performance during last year’s May Day celebration.
By A.R. Gomda