The National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) says the Tier Three Pension scheme is not discriminatory but rather designed to benefit all classes of informal sector workers in the country.

Mr. Williams Ohene-Adjei, the Bono, Bono East, and Ahafo Regional Manager of the NPRA said this, therefore advised head potters, market women, truck, and wheelbarrow pushers as well as food vendors to capitalize, register, and join the scheme for their future good.

He was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the sidelines of a sensitization forum on pensions for workers in the informal sector at Goaso, the Ahafo Regional capital.

The Bono Regional Office of the NPRA in collaboration with the German Development Cooperation organized the day’s forum to sensitize the more than 500 participants on the relevant and the need for them to join the pension scheme.

Mr Ohene-Adjei indicated the authority's commitment to streamlining the pension industry by ensuring that informal sector workers, especially artisanal workers had the opportunity to register, contribute, and benefit from pensions. 

That would also guarantee future financial security for hairdressers, dressmakers, seamstresses, masons, and carpenters as well as mechanics and welders.

Mr. Ohene-Adjei stressed that the tier three pension contributors had the right and privilege to join a trustee of their choice and added that their financial contributions were always secured for the future.

He advised those yet to register and join the tier three scheme to erode their minds from the wrong perception about pension schemes, and do so, stressing “You will never regret in life if you join and contribute to the tier three scheme.”

Mr Samuel Baffour-Awauh, Corporate Affairs Officer at the NPRA who took the participants through the Tier Three pension scheme, said they could contribute to the scheme as low as GHC5 every month and advised them to plan their businesses well and make the contributions.

In an open forum, many of the participants who spoke expressed appreciation to the Authority for the sensitization that had enlightened them.