SSNIT informal sector Fund; Tool for revenue generation

THE Managing Director of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) Informal Sector Fund (SISF), Dr Francis Sapara-Grant, has stated that the operations of the fund points to the fact that the fund is an effective revenue mobilisation mechanism towards national development.
He said the minimal withdrawal rates recorded by the fund since it started mobilising contributions from members on a voluntary basis has re-enforced suggestions that the fund could  be an effective tool for national development.
The fund which started operations as an independent body in 2008 to address the low patronage by informal sector workers towards SSNIT contributions has so far recorded an 18.4 per cent withdrawals, a rate the managing director observed had re-enforced thoughts from its stakeholders that “the fund is an important tool for savings towards the development of the national economy.”
Dr Sapara-Grant made the observation when a five-member delegation from Tanzania led by the country’s Labour and Employment Minister, Ms Gaudentia M Kabaka, paid a working visit to the fund’s head office in Accra.

DR Sapara-Grant giving a soft copy of the presentation to Ms Guadentia M Kabaka

Taking the Tanzanian delegation through the operations and modalities of the fund, Dr Sapara-Grant said the operations of the SISF was aimed at addressing the low patronage of the informal sector towards the SSNIT pension scheme.
According to him,  a SSNIT sponsored research on the causes of the low patronage of the  pension scheme revealed that “most informal sector workers were unwilling to join the scheme because they could not have access to their finance except they were on retirement.
As a result, Dr Sapara-Grant said SISF’s operations have been made “flexible and easy to access and join as a way of getting more of the country’s large informal sector workers to  register.”
As part of that flexibility, the managing director said that members of the fund were permitted to use their voluntary contributions as mortgage towards acquiring residential homes, adding that “the fund can also give contributors loans, upon request.”
He was of the view that the fund needed government and other key stakeholders’ sponsorship to enable it “bring on board most of the people in the informal sector and in the process save money that can be used for economic development.”
“If SSNIT, upon its current coverage of 10 per cent of the country’s populace, can do all that it has done, then you can imagine what would happen if SISF is able to get a large chunk of the informal sector registered and contributing.”
The fund currently has a membership of about 85,000, “a tip of the iceberg” when compared to the over 80 per cent of the country’s workforce that are said to be engaged in the informal sector.”
The Tanzanian Labour and Employment Minister and officials from the country’s Social Security Regulatory Authority (SSRA) are in the country to understudy the Ghanaian pension scheme as the authority seeks to improve on its operations.
Ms Gaudentia Kabaka later told the Daily Graphic that “it was interesting to hear how Ghana runs its social security scheme and we hope to replicate some of the experiences shared when we go back.”