The Director-General of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Kofi Bosompem Osafo-Maafo, has staunchly defended the tenure of the company’s board members and management amidst growing calls for their resignation.
Mr Osafo-Maafo asserted that the current board members and management have demonstrated sufficient accomplishments to justify their continued leadership roles.
In response to demands from Organised Labour and other stakeholders for the board’s dissolution following the cancellation of a proposed 60 percent stake sale in SSNIT-owned hotels to Rock City Hotel, Osafo-Maafo affirmed their competence and commitment.
He pointed to various initiatives and achievements undertaken by SSNIT since 2017 as evidence of their effective stewardship.
Mr Osafo-Maafo highlighted operational improvements, enhanced efficiency, and successful resolution of inherited challenges as key achievements under his tenure.
“Let me make another point that is worth stressing and that is what the board and management of SSNIT have achieved since I have been there since 2017 and I can speak to the track record and changes that have been put in place.
“When we look at the operational improvements that have been brought in, the efficiency of the SSNIT’s operation has been much better. If you look at the legacy issues and the magnitude of what we inherited, we have resolved them positively.
“The contracts that SSNIT went in to do real estate as far back as 2016 involved an investment of $185 million and we are in the process of disposing of approximately 20 percent of those real estate assets and we are continuing to do that. In cost-saving measures, the saving alone that we made on the Westhills Ridge project is $30 million.”
“I can go through other real estate investments that began a few years ago and we have just completed the largest affordable housing project in the country in Kumasi.
“We have also put in a set of investments that will outlive me to put the Trust in the best position,” Mr. Osafo-Maafo told the host, Bernard Avle of the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, July 15.