The term of office of the Director-General of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) Dr John Ofori-Tenkorang, has come to an end and is now up for review, after four years of working with the organisation.

At a time when the number of employers paying contributions for their workers was around 54,000 and active contributors were reported at about 1.27 million Dr Ofori-Tenkorang was appointed to take over the reins of SSNIT as a Director-General.

Issues of ‘ghost names’ in the pension payroll were reportedly siphoning more than GH¢400 million every year from the economy of the country with assets being a little over GH¢8.4 billion and contributors’ statements were delivered through postal services, this is according to a Daily Graphic report.

Current situation

After four years, the SSNIT scheme has now added on to its laurels and now boasts assets above GH¢9.5 billion under the leadership of Dr. Tenkorang.

His leadership also got rid of the recurrent ‘ghost names’ menace, resulting in the deletion of about 11,000 names and savings of more than GH¢500 million for the Scheme.

The Contributors’ statements are now distributed electronically, helping them to keep track of their contributions and promoting transparency during his leadership.

There has also been tremendous growth in employers and contributors to the scheme, while employers with the basic pension scheme are now around 65,000 institutions, increasing the number of contributors to about 1.63 million, making the base from which SSNIT collects and grows its fund high.

Stakeholders’ expectations

However, the Secretary-General of the TUC, Dr Anthony Yaw Baah, has praised Dr. Tenkorang in an interview, stating that organised labour had observed a marked improvement in the operations of SSNIT during his leadership.

He explained that some key metrics such as care for pensioners, cost of operation, the growth trajectory of the number of contributors and assets and the general image of the scheme had improved, giving hope to labour that the Trust was becoming increasingly resilient on global standards.

Pensioners’ perspective

Meanwhile, Mr Ben Asumang, a former representative of the National Pensioners Association (NPA) on the SSNIT Board of Trustees said Dr Ofori-Tenkorang’s policies had impacted positively on pensioners, citing the reduction in the period leading to the payment of first pensions from an average of 47 days to 13 days as of December 2020 as one such initiative.

“He also ensured that the government paid penalty on delayed payment of contributions under the National Pensions Act, 2008, Act 766. Before he came, the government could delay for about 10 years and nothing was done but now, when there is a delay, the government is penalized, this has helped to boost the financial position of the Trust, which is helping to pay pensioners their due even in the heat of a pandemic,” he said.