Over 5,000 SSNIT contributors earn under C35,000 a month

Accra, Oct. 11, GNA - More than 5,000 people that contributed to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) Fund in 2005 earned less than 35,000 cedis a month.

This amount, which employers paid to the workers was more than 10 times below the minimum wage for that period.

The minimum wage then stood at 364,500 cedis a month. The second annual Stakeholders' Forum of the Trust in Accra on Wednesday brought this to light but not without Managers of the fund reaffirming their commitment to institute measures to check the offending employers.

The year 2005, which saw contribution collected increasing by 17.2 per cent, recorded 5.81 per cent growth that swelled the fund size to 9.29 trillion cedis as against 8.78 trillion cedis in 2004. Mr John Saka Addo, SSNIT Board Chairman, described the year as eventful that witnessed a significant reduction in investment income due to the decline in interest rates and the relatively low performance of equities on the Ghana Stock Exchange.

He attributed the growth in the fund size to the combined effects of increased contributions collected, which stood at 1.91 trillion cedis as against 1.63 trillion in 2004 and increased in average salaries of contributors.

The Trust, Mr Addo, said would aggressively pursue its policy of on-lending to companies through the banks and other financial institutions since it had significantly increased the pool of long term funds to the private sector.

On pension reforms, he said, steps were being taken to restructure SSNIT to reduce the perceived overbearing dominance of the Government on the administration of the scheme.

Mr Addo said the Trust was working to develop a comprehensive national retirement policy.

Presenting the detail report, Mr Kwasi Osei, Director-General of SSNIT, said the Trust processed 78,137 applications for various benefits valued at 630.24 billion cedis in 2005 as compared to 447.35 billion cedis the previous year.

Total indebtedness to SSNIT as at the end to 2005 was 329.14 billion cedis of which the Controller and Accountant General's Department owed 106.44 billion cedis, representing 32 per cent of the figure. Private establishments owed the Trust 215.96 billion cedis whereas subvented organizations had 6.74 billion cedis to settle. Topping the list of defaulting companies is the Ghana Railway Corporation with 84.63 billion cedis; followed by Ghana Airways and Prestea Gold Resources with 14.29 cedis and 9.6 billion cedis, respectively.

The fourth and fifth defaulters are Westec Securities and Gocrest Securities who owed 9.41 billion cedis and 8.0 billion cedis, respectively.

Mr Osei said the indebtedness had become a grave concern to the Trust and announced that measures such as enforcement of compliance, publication of names of defaulting employers and prosecution were being considered.

The total number of pensioners he said increased by 2.92 per cent from 66,971 in December 2004 to 68,925 in December 2005. Average monthly pension for 2005 was 551,271.36 cedis with the highest being slightly over 66 million cedis while the lowest was 125,000 cedis.