Published on 15 November, 2018.

A renovated office accommodation, located within the premises of the SSNIT Cape Coast Branch office, has been inaugurated and officially handed over to the members of the National Pensioners’ Association (NPA) by the Management of SSNIT on Tuesday November 13, 2018.

The office is expected to facilitate the discharge of the administrative duties of the Association.

The Board Chairman of SSNIT, Dr Kwame Addo-Kufuor, said that upon his assumption of duty in March 2017, he vowed and urged the Management of SSNIT to make Pensioners the focus of attention. He said he had been alarmed by pensioners “being victims of occupational incapacity and their dependants” and vowed that during his tenure it was be reduced drastically.

The Board Chairman added that “the staff of SSNIT and the contributors to the Trust were to also get their due.”

Dr Addo-Kufuor said that due to financial constraints, the Trust had not been able to discharge all the things it had intended over the last 18 (eighteen) months, but at least a start had been made.

The Board Chairman stated that, being a pensioner himself, he was aware that healthcare was a major challenge to the senior citizens and this was why an amount GH¢300,000 Ghana cedis was donated to the Pensioners’ Medical Health Scheme in December, 2017. He further revealed that the Board and Management of SSNIT were in discussion on the way forward for this programme.”

Dr Addo-Kufuor emphasised that the Trust was concerned about office accommodation for the NPA and would offer similar assistance to other Regional Branches as and when the finances of the Trust improved. He further revealed  that in order to ensure that adequate resources were made available to the Trust for the benefit of pensioners, SSNIT had collaborated with the Registrar General’s Department and the Ghana Revenue Authority to connect their database to get on board all newly registered establishments.

The SSNIT Board Chairman said most of the leakages within the Trust had also been plugged and cost cutting measures put in place to ensure effective mobilisation of resources and that the major benefactors of these enhanced resources would be the Ghanaian pensioner.

The Regional Chairman of the NPA for Central Region, Mr T.K Appiah lauded the gesture by SSNIT Management and said it gave the Association hope for greater things ahead. Mr Appiah added that the aim of the Association is tied to the national aspiration of fighting for the improvement of the welfare of members which included better pension, assistance to each other in sickness, bereavement and to support SSNIT in its public education to bring in more contributors to the Scheme.