Some 20% of Ghanaians will need pension support in old age – World Bank
The World Bank has pointed out that 20 per cent of Ghana’s population will in the future need old age support requiring higher expenditure in social security.
The Ghana Country Director of the Bank, Henry Kerali noted that the World Bank’s analysis indicates that the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) is currently spending about 1 per cent of GDP on providing pensions, which support about 0.4 per cent of the population.
“This does not include other pension spending in Ghana for retirees of some of the public services. 20 per cent of Ghana’s population will in future need old age support, this will require a proportionately higher expenditure. It is therefore critical to take a close look at what changes might be made now, before workers join the system with the expectation of a pension upon retirement,” he said.
Mr. Kerali said these at a four-day workshop organized by the World Bank from June 11 – 14, 2018 on Ghana’s Pensions System and training using the World Bank’s pension model PROST.
“Pensions are crucial in supporting thousands of Ghanaians after retirement. At the same time, sound management of pensions, including a well-developed policy and a programme of appropriate reforms will be critical to get on the path to Ghana Beyond Aid.
The World Bank is therefore committed to working with the Government of Ghana on developing a smarter and sound pensions system that is affordable for the economy and protects the elderly,” he said.
The workshop and the follow-up Pensions Reform Options Simulation Toolkit (PROST) training is the result of a fruitful, multi-year technical engagement the World Bank has had with the Government of Ghana. It seeks to provide a rigorous and detailed exploration of potential areas of improvement of Ghana’s pensions system, the Bank said in a press release copied to ghanabusinessnews.com
Commenting, Ignatius Baffour Awuah, the Minister for Employment and Labour Relations said, “We are introducing some critical reforms to the pension regime in line with our medium-term development objectives. These include transfer of all Temporary Pension Fund Account (TPFA) Funds held at Bank of Ghana to the Custodian Banks of Registered Schemes, Unification of all multiple public-sector pension schemes, and guaranteeing the sustainability of the three-tier pension scheme.”
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi