SSNIT registers tremedious growth

Page 55 (lead) November 10/2008

Story: Charles Benoni Okine

THE Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) scheme has grown from GH¢630 million in 2003 to Gh¢1,639.8 million as of the end of last year.
This represents a positive growth of 160 per cent.
The trust also recorded a real return of 10.9 per cent on it investments last year, as against 4.3 per cent the previous year.
The Chairman of the SSNIT Board, Mr John Saka Addo, who announced this at the fourth SSNIT Stakeholders Forum in Accra, said the achievements placed the trust in a good stead to meet its obligations and liabilities in the years ahead.
The forum, which brought together a large number of contributors to the scheme, pensioners and the general public, afforded the stakeholders the opportunity to see the financial strength of the trust and the way forward.
Mr Addo said the trust was also able to reduce administrative cost ratio of contribution collection from 23 per cent to 14 per cent and noted, “We will not relent in our efforts and we shall pursue even more aggressive and prudent measures to be more efficient and judicious in managing the resources entrusted to us.”
He said while for the first time in the history of the trust it was able to record 102,567 new members last year, the pension population also recorded a steady increase of 10.39 per cent from 73,311 in 2006 to 80,952 in 2007.
He said the effort to recover social security contribution arrears recorded some modest gains and that reduced the cumulative indebtedness to 14.14 per cent of contributions, as against 15 per cent of contributions in 2006.
“We need to stress that the indebtedness of some distressed state-owned enterprises has greatly impacted on our overall debt recovery performance,” he said, adding, “We hope that in the coming years SSNIT and the government will agree on acceptable terms to settle those debts.”
In his report, the Director-General of the trust, Mr Kwasi Osei, said the results presented indicated that SSNIT was making steady progress in all its operational areas.
“A total amount of GH¢384.97 million was collected as contributions in 2007. This represented an increase of 34.23 per cent over the amount of GH¢286.80 million collected in 2006,” he said.
The chunk of the collection, he said, was payment from the private sector and the remaining from the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department.
He said the trust had been audited by external auditors who reported that in its present state it was solvent until 2042.
However, Mr Osei said the management of SSNIT would continue to review its operations and embark on more aggressive campaigns to ensure that the scheme lasted a lifetime because of its role in guaranteeing the future security of workers in the country.