Wa branch of SSNIT exceeds target

WA, Nov. 5, GNA - The Wa branch of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) collected 260,000 Ghana cedis (2.6 billion) cedis as workers contributions between January and August and this exceeded the 230,000 Ghana cedis (2.3 billion cedis) it had targeted to collect for the year

Criminal summons would soon be issued against 38 organizations in the area that have defaulted in the payment of their workers' contributions to the tune of 9,100 Ghana cedis (91 million cedis). Mr Mathew Kyeremateng, Manager of the Wa Branch of SSNIT, said this at a day's seminar organized for employers and social security schedule officers drawn from government departments and agencies in the branch's operational area at Wa on Monday.

The seminar, which is one of a series being held nationwide, was aimed at getting employers to know their obligations under PNDC law 247 and benefits under the SSNIT Pension Scheme.

He mentioned difficulties in tracing employers such as contractors and the vast and inaccessible nature of the operational area of the branch that includes Bole, Wa East Wa West and Nadowli districts as the major challenges facing their operations.

Miss Eva Amegashie, Deputy Head of Public Affairs of the Trust, said the organization after self appraisal of its performance was putting in place a number of customer service interventions to make the organization more responsive to public demands. Some of these include the introduction of E-Banking and E-Business to enhance its operations and ensure efficiency that had resulted in Pensioners now getting their monthly pensions earlier than was previously the case.

Miss Amegashie said the highest paid SSNIT pensioner takes a monthly pension of 7,800 Ghana cedis (78 million cedis) while the lowest gets 15 Ghana cedis (150,000 cedis). Mr Felix Adams, Area Manager of the Trust, said the law does not compel any self-employed person to join the scheme but such people could only opt to do so. However, any employer who has only one person under his employment was bound by the Law to pay the contributions of such a worker to SSNIT.

He expressed regret that a lot of SSNIT contributors do not validate their records especially those concerning their nominees to the extend that 50-60 year old workers still had names of their parents as their nominees.