Akwasi Afreh Biney
The controversial issue of whether or not to sell non-performing Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) hotels popped up yesterday during a media engagement organised by the Trust.
Fielding a question on the subject, the Director-General (DG) of SSNIT, Kwesi Afreh Biney was emphatic: “we will not sell any hotel.”
SSNIT, he said, is rather considering various options to address the challenge, one of which is a partnership arrangement with a hotel group.
“La Palm needs remodeling and we are getting proposals from interested partners. There is no way we would sell it,” he disclosed.
Under such an arrangement, the group will run the hotel as professionals even as SSNIT maintains its ownership.
He painted a bright outlook for the Labadi Beach Hotel, which he said “will not be sold.”
One of the hotels owned by SSNIT, the Elmina Hotel, he said “is a tough one but engagements are on to turn things around.”
He, for instance, pointed arrangement by which the tourist potential of Elmina will be leveraged upon. The Labadi Beach Hotel, he said, can host tourists who will be moved to the Elmina Beach Hotel through internally managed coaches. This way, he noted, the fortunes of the Elmina Hotel can be turned around.
Dubbed “Media Connect,” the engagement was part of activities marking SSNIT’s 60th anniversary under the theme “A Legacy of Service.”
The DG’s could not have captured the journey from its humble beginnings as a provident fund as thought out by Ghana’s first President, Kwame Nkrumah, in the following words: “from brick and mortar to digital.”
Today, in the comfort of their homes, pensioners and contributors can join SSNIT’s portal to access their statements among other details, he said.
So efficient and wide covering has SSNIT been in recent times that, according to the DG, the youngest pensioner is aged 32 while the oldest beneficiary is 92.
The digital transformation featuring in the operations of SSNIT accounts for the phenomenal progress being witnessed in the Trust.
The foregone, he went on, has also led to an internal efficiency which in turn ensures improved services to pensioners and contributors.
Improved life expectancy in the country has come with a situation where SSNIT pays beneficiaries for longer. This, he added, is gladdening to the Trust because it means people are witnessing improved lives.
The Trust, he said, continues to support pensioners as in among others providing them with meeting locations in district and regional offices across the country.
The SSNIT DG is an accomplished chartered accountant and chartered banker with many years in the banking industry. He was recently elected President of a West African Social Security grouping.