Management of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) says 57,000 self-employed workers have so far been enrolled onto the scheme through its aggressive Self-Employed Enrollment Drive (SEED) initiative.
Last year, only 14,000 self-employed workers were registered onto the scheme, but the number has significantly increased to 57,000. Management believes this increment can be attributed to the SEED initiative’s enhanced and aggressive public education.
According to management, all staff at SSNIT are poised to ensure a change in the trend where the elderly rely solely on their children and grandchildren in their old age instead of SSNIT benefits.
This was made known by the Director General of SSNIT Dr. John Ofori – Tenkorang in an interview with Citi News on the sidelines of an engagement with informal sector workers in the Eastern Region organized by the Trade Union Congress TUC and SSNIT on Monday.
He used the opportunity to dispel the myth that SSNIT is only for government workers.
“Well, the myth is that we heard about SSNIT, and we thought it was for government workers only. That myth is not true. Right now we have about almost two million active contributors on SSNIT. Only about 700,000 of them are people who work for government and there are 1.2 million of them who work for private companies,” he stated.
On his part, the Deputy Secretary General of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Joshua Ansah who welcomed the partnership with SSNIT said the move would help secure the future of workers in the informal sector.