Army Personnel attend retirement forum

Accra, April 25, GNA - The Minister of Education and Sports, Mr Yaw Osafo Maafo has opened a day's forum on "Preparing for Retirement - Counselling Hints" with a call on all workers to start preparing themselves adequately long before their retirement.

The Minister in a speech read for him by Dr Albert Adomako, Coordinator, Capacity Building Programme, Ministry of Education, said it was inevitable that every worker would retire from active services at a point in time so "we should, therefore, reflect and prepare ourselves for this inevitable situation in our lives".

The forum was organized by a group of students of the Guidance and Counselling Practicum II of the Department of Psychology and Education, University of Education, Winneba for personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces in Accra.

The forum also, formed part of the students' practical training requirement for the award of Bachelor in Education degree in Guidance and Counselling.

Mr Osafo-Maafo said since retirement was almost a termination of all active services, one had to be on guard as a rationale human being, irrespective of any comfortable positions at the workplace and make the necessary arrangements that would enable the one to have a long happy retirement.

He, therefore, commended the University for allowing students to undertake the programme to educate the army personnel on the need to prepare well before retirement.

Ms Evangeline Amegashie, Deputy Head of Public Affairs, Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), who presented a paper on the theme, advised workers to set realistic goals by projecting their retirement expenses based on their needs.

"Be honest about how you want to live in retirement and how much it will cost. Then calculate how much you must save to supplement pension and other retirement income", she said.

She said every worker must take advantage of various pension schemes, be it public or private packages so that they could live on reasonable wages during their retirement period. Mr Philip Kofi Annan, Leader of the Students, stressed the importance of guidance and counselling in all aspects of endeavours and asked that all institutions must embrace it to equip people, particularly workers to brace themselves for life's challenges and achievements.