According to Dr. John Ofori-Tenkorang, Director-General of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), just 49% of businesses are in compliance with employers’ obligations to pay employees’ pension contributions.
According to Act 766, employers are required to ensure that all employees are registered on the Scheme and make regular contributions on their behalf. To do this, they must deduct 18.5 percent from each employee’s monthly pay, which includes an additional 13 percent of base pay.
During an Employers’ Breakfast Meeting held today in Accra, the Director-General noted that as of August 2022, the total number of compliant establishments recorded was 39,242 compared to 80,434 recorded as liable establishments during the same period. This represents a compliance rate of 49 percent.
“We want to ensure that all your workers are registered, including casual workers, and pay the right contributions based on the right earnings of your employees. The SSNIT scheme can only be better if you make sure that whatever is being earned is actually insured,” Dr. Ofori-Tenkorang told the employers.
The Trust has improved its self-service portal as well. Members and clients can now access the portal to carry out a variety of tasks, such as seeing and downloading Clearance Certificates and arranging negotiating sessions for unpaid debts among others.
He encouraged employers to pay the right contributions for their workers by consolidating the earnings of their workers for enhanced pensions. This will motivate them to go the extra mile in the discharge of their duties.
“We advise you to pay SSNIT contributions on or before the 14th day of the ensuing month,” he stressed.
Per the Scheme, at the end of May 2022, more than GH¢101.38million had been retrieved through court action. The total number of cases within the same period also stood at 10,365.
SSNITpay
SSNIT has introduced an electronic payment system that allows employers and the self-employed to pay their SSNIT contributions with ease.
The payment platform, SSNITpay, went live on October 10, 2022. Members can now pay SSNIT contributions using their Mobile Money Wallet via USSD short code, Mobile Money POS – walk-in and Debit Card via the Trust’s Web Portal – portal.ssnit.org.gh.
The innovation forms part of new measures to enhance service delivery to members and clients of the Trust.
Members need to dial *711*9# to access the Mobile Money payment platform, which is E-levy exempted.
Adoption of the e-payment platform is expected to bring relief and convenience to employers and members, who hitherto had to travel long distances to a SSNIT Branch or a SSNIT partner bank to pay their contributions.
He encouraged employers and self-employed workers to use the Mobile Money channels to pay their contributions.
Employers Meeting
The breakfast meeting is aimed at strengthening the relationship between the Trust and employers to help deepen their understanding of the First Tier Social Security Scheme’s operations.
Organised under the theme ‘Sustainability of the SSNIT Scheme: the role of Employers’, the meeting also provided a platform to discuss challenges facing employers concerning the SSNIT scheme and how they can be resolved.
A second meeting is expected to be held in Takoradi later this month. Last year, two similar meetings with compliant employers were held in Accra and Kumasi following the maiden edition in 2019, which saw about 50 employers attending in Accra.