Wa, Oct. 26, GNA – Mr Yakubu Alhassan Fuseini, the Tamale Zonal Head of the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), has called on the informal sector to enrol on a pension scheme to ensure old-age income security.
He said the informal sector, which formed about 80 percent of the country’s workforce, had only about 30 percent of the actors in the sector on a pension scheme.
Mr Fuseini made the call in Wa on Monday at a sensitization workshop for the informal sector actors on the new 3-Tier pension scheme and the need for them to enrol on it.
Representatives from the Ghana Garages Association, Ghana Association of Barbers, Weavers Association, Dress Makers Association and Auto-mechanics, among others participated in the sensitization programme.
They were taken through the requirements and processes of enrolling onto the new 3-Tier pension scheme and its benefits.
“Our aim is to involve the informal sector. As we are all aware, the informal sector controls the employment situation in the country and, as a result, workers in the sector are our target for this awareness creation.
“The reason is that their participation in pension is very low. So, we want to rope them in to increase their pension contribution so that we are able to give them retirement income security,” Mr Fuseini explained.
He said the informal sector did not have any appreciation of the pension scheme before the inception of the new 3-Tier pension scheme hence the need to educate them on it.
He explained that managers of the trustees had made it easier for the informal sector to make their pension contributions through mobile shortcodes due to their busy schedules.
“Pension funds are nothing but an investment. When you contribute your money towards retirement, your money is invested towards that … all of these are done to reduce old-age poverty,” he explained.
Some of the participants commended the NPRA for the information, which they said was an eye-opener to them to plan for a better future.
Mr Issah Suleman, the Upper West Regional Secretary of the Cattle Dealers Association, acknowledged that some of their members who had grown old without being on any pension scheme were dependent on their relatives for survival.
He said saving for the future was a laudable idea to enable them to become self-reliant in their old age.