26,401 Employers Evade Pension Payments

Sam Pee Yalley

Only 5,599 employers out of Ghana’s active employer population of over 32,000 have complied with the directive to pay the pension contributions of their employees, records at the Social Security & National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) indicate.

By Samuel Boadi
This is in spite of the fact that the new pension scheme has been with Ghanaians for the past three years.
According to Sam Pee Yalley, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), as many as 26,401 employers have intentionally disregarded directives by NPRA to pay their workers’ pension contributions.


He disclosed this while speaking on Friday in Accra during Citi FM’s Roundtable Conference on the topic: “The pension reform in Ghana – the story so far.”


According to him, the total number of pension contributors that have been signed onto the schemes currently stands at 163,843.


“These statistics are worrying,” Mr. Yalley commented, adding that “this is to serve notice to employees that effective 1^st July, 2013, the NPRA will prosecute any employer who has refused or failed to register or join any scheme.”


In view of the foregoing, the CEO of NPRA said his outfit has commenced the process of bringing all schemes mentioned under section 213 of Act 766 “with the ultimate view of ensuring that all our security forces, with the exception of the Ghana Armed Forces, namely Ghana Police Service, Ghana Immigration Service, Prisons Service, Fire Service, security and intelligence agencies as well as the CAP 30, are brought under the new pension scheme.”


Additionally, he said the unification exercise will include the Ghana Universities Staff Superannuation Scheme, Teachers Pension Scheme under Ordinance 1955 and the Legal Officers Pension scheme.


In November last year, NPRA caused to be issued provisional members benefit statement for workers into the Temporal Pension Fund Account through SSNIT.


And the purpose of the exercise was to primarily afford contributors the opportunity to conform or correct their bio-data, as well as take note of gaps in the contribution periods.


The Temporal Pension Fund Account was opened at the Bank of Ghana (BoG) as a master collection account for all 5 percent contribution into the 2^nd Tier Occupational Pension Schemes until otherwise advised.


The NPRA immediately invested all the monies accumulating from the TPFA in Treasury Bonds.
At the last mini-reconciliation, a total of GH¢852,732,125.84, including the maturity value of government body issued for the payment of contributions for public sector workers had accumulated on the investment.
Statements issued to workers covered under the scheme were for February 2010 and June 2011.


This means that some investments that had not matured were not factored in the computation.
Also, no detailed reconciliation had been undertaken to ascertain the lags in the contribution collection by SSNIT, intermediary banks reconciliation and transfers into the TPFA and notification of payment to SSNIT.