Footballers appeal to SSNIT for prompt contribution payment

Aggrieved players of the Ghana Premier League (GPL) and the Division One League have entreated the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to be more diligent in ensuring that their SSNIT contributions are paid promptly.

The players, who spoke to the Times Sports yesterday said they found out to their dismay that their SSNIT contributions were either not up to date or were in arrears.

According to the players, who begged to be unnamed for fear of victimisation since they were still under contract, some of their colleagues had empty statements even though they had been with the clubs for a year or two.

“I can tell you that some of the newly-recruited players have no SSNIT numbers at all. We got this piece of information during the World Cup break after we decided to crosscheck our status with SSNIT and asked that they print out our statements for us.

“We are speechless in matters like this so please make sure you don’t mention our names and clubs otherwise we are fired,” one player stressed.

The affected players, mostly from Accra, Kumasi, and Sunyani, have urged Mr Nkoo Joseph of the SSNIT Self-Employment Enrolment Department, to help intervene in their situation.

“Nkoo has been fighting for us and we believe he would double up his efforts to ensure the right thing is done,” they echoed.

The players goaded officials at SSNIT to “chase our employers to pay our contributions, otherwise in future, we will blame SSNIT if we don’t qualify to ensure our pension.”

They have also urged SSNIT to enroll more footballers in Ghana onto the SSNIT Pension Scheme to guarantee a brighter future.

Meanwhile, a former player of premiership side Accra Hearts of Oak, Abednego Tetteh, has reported the club to SSNIT over unpaid contributions due him.

Tetteh signed for Hearts in 2020 and got his contract termi­nated last year, but not before 12 percent of his salary had been deducted as SSNIT contributions over the period.

The ex-Hearts striker has peti­tioned SSNIT to bring the law to bear by ensuring that his contribu­tions can be credited.