The Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour-Awuah has given assurances that Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) is set to shift policy away from investing in non-profit social ventures to safeguard contributors’ funds.
The Minister was responding to concerns of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) regarding an observation from the 2021 Auditor General’s report that 10 companies including Metro Mass Transit and Kumasi Abattoir have failed to pay dividends to SSNIT for the past 10 years.
The Chairman of PAC said that “SSNIT is managing the contributions of the members and you need to manage the funds to the extent that when it comes to payment of their benefits you will be in the position to pay. If you don’t manage the funds well, it will get to a point when you will not be able to pay their pensions.”
“So workers are concerned that you do good investments that will bring you returns so that the value of the contributions will not be lost. If you don’t do a good investment, then there is going to be a difficulty at the end,” he added.
In response, Mr Baffour-Awuah said, “I think that your admonition is well taken and going forward the policy direction they have to take especially those that are socially inclined like the Metro Mass Transit and Kumasi Abattoir, certainly, those will not be driven by profit because they are providing social services.”
“But whether we are going to keep SSNIT financing social projects is something which policy decision ought to be taken. And I want t assure you as the Minister responsible for the sector that that is not going to be the order of the day.”
