Unification of pension schemes approved – Employment Ministry

The Employment and Labour Relations Ministry has secured Cabinet’s approval for the unification of pension schemes to create a fair and equitable regime.

Prior to the current pension regime, there were various non-contributory schemes under Cap 30 which were mainly for teachers and the security services.

The unification will ensure that officers of some security services whose pension contributions are handled by the government would start paying pension contributions from their earnings.

The National Pensions Regulatory Authority in 2015 initiated processes for the unification of all the schemes under the three-tier system.

Deputy Employment and Labour Relations Minister, Bright Wereko-Brobby, told Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee that a roadmap is being developed to achieve the goal.

“The unification is one of the mandates of NPRA. As a country, we are too fragmented so the wisdom of those who put the Act together was for us to try an unify the pensions,” he told the media.

The Deputy Minister also disclosed during the sitting that over GHc 3 billion of tier-two contributions which had been held up for the past nine years have finally been released to various schemes

“We’ve been able to ensure that these monies that were held up, close to GHc 3 billion and over pensions money have now been given to the various schemes. So workers are now very happy,” he said.

Mr Wereko-Brobby made the comments at the sitting with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), Mr Hayford Attah Krufi, to respond to queries from the 2016 Auditor-General’s Report about the NPRA.

Source: citinewsroom