The Self-Employed Enrollment Drive (SEED) program has been successfully introduced by the management of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), a move that will significantly alter and influence the futures of many individuals who would have otherwise become dependent on others or would have been forced to work into their senior years when they should have been comfortably retired.
Dr. John Ofori-Tenkorang, General Director of SSNIT, said today’s commencement of the program in Kumasi was the result of all the preparation work and efforts they had put in over the last year or so.
According to him, the Board of Trustees of the organization was focused and committed to carrying out the duties assigned to them by the legislation that oversees social security in this nation which serves as the requirement to provide all workers, even the self-employed, with pension coverage.
To advance this goal, management held broad consultations with a range of stakeholders across the nation to get their advice and assistance on how SSNIT could make pension coverage avail to the self-employed.
“We learned a lot from representatives of government organizations, civil society organizations (CSOs), the Ghana Employers Association, national and regional leaders of trade associations (in the unorganized sector), key figures in the media and entertainment sector, and religious figures and organizations, among others” Dr. Tenkorang stated.
He said the implementation of this campaign, which has been named the Self-Employed Enrolment Drive (SEED), which also symbolizes a seed that must be sown, has been considerably shaped by the lessons learned.
Our self-employed brothers and sisters will have hope that they can also retire in luxury and comfort because of the SEED’s contribution to the country’s social security system redefinition.
What this got us were several employers who complied begrudgingly, saw SSNIT as a tax, and tried very hard to pay the barest minimum by pushing most employee entitlements into allowances, and paying SSNIT contributions on minimal basic salaries.
