Government to provide Uniform Pension Scheme for all

Bolgatanga, Aug 20, GNA - Mr. Thomas Ango Bediako, the Chairman of the Pensions Reform Implementation Committee, said on Thursday that the government would provide a uniform pension scheme for all workers in the informal sector with the implementation of the New Pension Scheme next year. He said this at Bolgatanga at the start of a regional tour by the Pension Reform Implementation Committee to educate the leadership of both formal and informal sector organizations and groups on the new pension scheme. Committee members will talk to the GPRTU, food vendors, tailors, bar keepers and farming groups.

Mr. Bediako said with the implementation of the New Pension Reforms the problem of unfair payment and the disparity of the retirement benefits of workers would be resolved. He said although the implementation of the new pension scheme would start in January next year its gestation period would be in four years. Mr. Bediako said under the scheme, the payment of pensions would be decentralized to departments and ministries at the regional and district levels to curtail the unnecessary burden of pensioners of travelling to Accra.

The new scheme would reduce the current number of 240 months for a person to contribute to enable him go on pension to 180 months. He said Pension Regulatory Authority would be established to oversee the effective management of the Scheme. Mr Bediako said workers of the non-formal sector could participate as an organized group and that there would be companies and institutions that would establish Personal Pension Schemes or Group Pensioners Schemes. He appealed to workers in the non-formal sector to register under the scheme when it begins next year.