Self-employed persons in Koforidua sensitized on benefits of SSNIT’s SEED initiative

Self-employed persons in Koforidua and its surrounding towns in the Eastern Region have been encouraged to enrol on the Social Security and National Insurance Trust’s (SSNIT) SEED initiative to enable them reap the benefits.

SSNIT have over the past weeks engaged in extensive sensitization across the country to raise awareness to its Self-Employed Enrolment Drive (SEED) – an initiative that focuses on extending pension coverage and social security protection to the self-employed and informal sector workers in the country.

Directors, managers and staff of the Trust accompanied by brass band music, embarked on the float through some principal streets of Koforidua including the central business district where they interacted with traders and members of the general public where they sensitized them on and the need to enrol onto the initiative.

This effort follows similar events held in Wa and Techiman in the Upper West and Bono East Regions respectively. Dubbed “Operation-A-Thon, (Ops-A-Thon)”, the exercise forms part of the Trust’s ongoing effort to sensitise self-employed persons on the benefits and value the Scheme offers its members and encourage workers to enrol.

Under the Ops-A-Thon initiative, SSNIT staff are touring various business enclaves, markets and walking through some principal streets of selected towns in the regions, interacting with business operators, displaying placards and distributing flyers to encourage self-employed individuals to enrol in the SSNIT Scheme.

Some of the placards displayed had messages such as: “Fa 13.5% begye 60%,” “Dial *711*9# to pay your contributions,” “the only scheme that provides you with invalidity pension,” “the only pension scheme that pays you as long as you live,” “Join SSNIT and get free National Health Insurance”, among others.

Addressing the media prior to the float in Koforidua, Mr. Kingsley Adjei-Manu, General Manager, Operations emphasized the benefits the Scheme offers to the members, stressing that the self-employed also deserves a pension when they have retired.

As explained by Mr. Kingsley Adjei-Manu, though SSNIT was required to draw all workers into its net, its primary focus previously rested solely on those within the formal sector, leaving out those in private businesses.

“In many countries, social security and pension are used to reduce poverty, especially old age poverty. Over the years, the country’s SSNIT was solely on the formal sector although the law mandates us to include the informal sector and self-employed persons.”

He said about 120,000 persons within the informal and self-employed space had been registered onto the scheme since its launch last year and expressed his delight that an appreciable number of persons within the Eastern region have since registered onto the SEED.

The General Manager, Operations disclosed that SSNIT pays about GHS 400,000,000 to about 300,000 pensioners, adding that it was the Trust’s ambition to increase the number of beneficiaries receiving monthly salaries as part of its efforts to reduce old age poverty.

Detailing the benefits that come with registering onto the SEED, Mr. Kingsley Adjei-Manu mentioned Old Age Pension, Invalidity Pension, and Survivors Lump Sum as notable benefits SSNIT extends to its members in times of need.

He explained that highlighting the benefits of the SSNIT Scheme to self-employed persons is important as it would ensure public understanding of the superiority of the Scheme and to garner support which would result in more workers in the informal sector joining the SSNIT Scheme.