About 60 officials from various state departments, institutions and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have undergone comprehensive training in the three-tier Pension Scheme.

They include Regional Directors of the Information Services Department, (ISD), Regional Secretaries of the TUC, Regional representatives of the Social Welfare Department and the National Commission for Civic Education.

This was contained in a statement by the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) signed by Kwame O. Kissiedu, Director of Corporate Affairs and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra on Thursday.

The statement said the training focused on building the capacity of participants in five core areas namely the Relevance of Pensions, the Pension Reform in Ghana, the new Three-tier Pension Scheme, the Role of Pension Service Providers, such the NPRA, Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Corporate Trustees, Pension Fund Managers and Pension Fund Custodians, as well as the Role of Stakeholders including Employers, Employees and the Media.

The training programme sponsored by the World Bank is part of an education and capacity building programme to equip the state institutions about the new pension system in Ghana.

Addressing the participants, Mr Sam Pee Yalley, Acting Chief Executive of NPRA said many Ghanaians appeared not to understand or fully appreciate the relevance of pensions and what they stood to gain by participating in the new three-tier Scheme.

He said it was for that reason that the NPRA decided to collaborate with the institutions that could get the message to the ordinary Ghanaian worker.

He said the TUC and the ISD could not be left out in the quest to reach the organised labour, both at the national and regional levels, whilst the ISD had structures across the country for information dissemination.

He said Social Welfare also became relevant because pensions were essentially about social protection and asked the participants to take the training serious to be able to impart the knowledge acquired to their colleagues in their respective Regions.

Participants received a copy each of the National Pensions Act 2008, Act 76 and other relevant materials.