La community members urged to prioritise savings

Goodnews Microfinance Limited, a financial service provider, on Wednesday educated the people La community in Accra on the essence of personal savings and contribution towards the informal pension scheme.

The four-hour event, which attracted a number of people including the La Traditional Council, was organised in collaboration with the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and La Dade-Kotopon Municipal Assembly.

Mr Prince A. Ollennu, Marketing Asset Manager SSNIT Informal Sector, said it was important for people to know about the initiative to facilitate their pension savings when going for retirement.

Mr Ollennu said the informal sector pension was a voluntary contributory pension scheme which provided members with benefits based exclusively on their contributions.

He said contributions made by members were divided into two equal parts, with one going into their savings account and the other into the pensions account, adding that, the savings account could be accessed when members were in need while the pension account could only be accessed at the age of 60 or when one dies.

He explained that monies paid by those contributors into the pension account would be given to them with all interest to allow people who were on pension to benefit during retirement.

He said the problem with Ghanaian traders is that they don’t have good saving habits and as such more educational programmes would be embarked on to ensure the people were well educated to have a positive habit towards saving.

Mr Eric Asamoah, Managing Director of Goodnews Microfinance, also encouraged the people, especially mothers, to open an asset fund that would enable them to acquire properties and a child fund that would invest in babies for a brighter future.

He said monies invested in funerals and other unprofitable ventures should be minimised and rather channelled into savings for the future of their children.

Nii Kpobi Tettey Tsuru III, La Manste, urged the people to focus on the future since savings was one important aspect of human existence.