The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has commenced three days Operations Conference at the Eastern Premier Hotel, Koforidua in the Eastern Region.

The annual conference brings together top management, departmental heads as well as area and branch managers from across the country to discuss the performance of the Trust during the previous year and the first three quarters of 2021. The meeting will also adopt strategies to improve operational output in 2022.

Addressing the conference, the Director-General, Dr. John Ofori-Tenkorang, indicated that “the members that are both contributors and pensioners, employers, potentials and the clients must be the focus of what we do”.

He said despite the gains the Trust has made over the past five years, a lot more can be done if there is a “reorientation of mindsets and a change to our approach to business from a business that has traditionally relied almost solely on the law to operate and to enforce compliance to one that is concerned with building and maintaining lifelong relationships”.

According to him, in spite of the 56-year existence of the Trust, only about 1.7 million people are active members.

“What that tells us clearly is that our approach has not worked well enough. Whilst I acknowledge the journey of innovation, improved service delivery and general transformation we have all been on these last few years, it appears we need to do far more”, he added.  

The task at hand is “to convert as many of the 13 million or so players in the informal sector to voluntary SSNIT or first tier contributors. After all, if we did not have Act 766 and we were just another insurance company that is exactly what we will be doing”.

Dr. Ofori-Tenkorang bemoaned the failure of the Trust to articulate the value of the scheme and the generous benefits it offers to workers especially those in the informal sector to secure their future.

“We at SSNIT over the years have not actively and convincingly sold the message and explained to people what the Scheme offers and how they are shortchanging themselves by not taking advantage of the offering.”

“The SSNIT Pension Scheme guarantees returns which is higher than what members would have received if they had invested the contributions they give to us monthly in the safest investment that is Treasury Bills. We analyzed the contribution records on randomly selected pensioners throughout their work life. The findings indicate that the total contributions plus interest, is far less than the present value of the pensions we pay them over the guaranteed period of 12 years under PNDCL 247 or 15 years under Act 766”, he added.

“For some people, their contribution plus interest cannot sustain the pension we pay them even for five years.  But the good news is that we will continue to pay even beyond the 15 years if the person is alive”, he further explained. 

He therefore charged his managers to change the narrative on low pensions by providing the right information to sign on new members especially, players in the informal sector.

Service delivery

The SSNIT boss commended staff for the improvement in service delivery which led to the Trust emerging as the best in service delivery in the public sector in 2018 and 2020.

He stressed on the need to treat members and clients right and ensure that they get a good experience every time they interact with staff.

“All the technology we are investing in i.e. new operating software, app, new interactive website and customer feedback mechanism, will mean nothing if the experience is bad, even once. As I keep saying, we cannot do much about the pensions Members receive but what we can do is to make sure that the amounts are calculated with 100 percent accuracy and also ensure that the service we give them is world class”.

Compliance

He explained that though under the National Pensions Act, employers are obliged to pay contributions for their workers or risk being prosecuted, there is the need to “build and maintain a good relationship with the employer” as a strategy for voluntary compliance.

“I’d rather prefer you build a relationship that results in voluntary compliance than to adopt a confrontational stance which sometimes leads to long drawn out prosecution which become a strain on the resources of both the employer and the Trust”.

He also encouraged the managers to prosecute employers when engagement fails.

SSNIT & NIA numbers merger

Touching on the ongoing NIA and SSNIT numbers merger, Dr. Ofori-Tenkorang urged the Branch Managers to work closely with employers within their various jurisdictions to ensure all their employees merge their NIA and SSNIT numbers before the 31^st December, 2021 deadline to avoid penalties for delay in processing and paying their contributions when the full switch over is done in 2022.

Earlier, in her keynote address, the Deputy Director-General, Operations and Benefits, Laurette Korkor Otchere, commended managers of the Operations and Benefits Divisions for their efforts over the past five years.

She indicated that the gathering of managers in her directorate at the annual conference has often led to great initiatives that have yielded good results for the Trust.

She said at the end of the three-day conference, strategies will be mapped out to ensure that contribution are paid for all registered employees, whilst data is effectively managed and benefits are accurately determined and promptly paid. Others are reduction in the level of employer indebtedness through persuasive engagement with indebted employers to negotiate flexible terms of payment.

Theme

Speaking on the theme, “Ensuring sustainability of the SSNIT Scheme, through effective and efficient operational business processes; leveraging modern and reliable technology”, she said "Sustainability of the SSNIT Scheme is essential and must be the bedrock on which we operate”.

This she opined, can be achieved by leveraging modern and reliable technology.

According to her, the use of data analytics, which allows managers to generate real-time performance reports as opposed to the previous manual reports that were generated has helped improved the performance of the divisions under her directorate.