Using pensions for mortgage will woo more SSNIT contributors – Atta-Akyea

Works and Housing Minister, Samuel Atta-Akyea, says the government is still working towards using pensions of workers to support a mortgage regime in the country.

He told the media that his Ministry and the Finance Ministry are “deep” into work on such plans.

“It is just [left with] legislation. We are saying that Ghanaians are ready to [use] 30 percent of every coin that drops in the pension fund for housing.”

In 2017, the Works and Housing Ministry said it would seek Cabinet approval on a proposal to invest between 30 and 40 percent of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) funds in the proposed credible mortgage system to ensure that all workers had access to mortgage facilities.

There is a provision in the Pensions Act which requires that part of the funds to be applied to real estate development.

Mr. Atta-Akyea said it was time housing received a stronger backing reflected in its financing.

“You see how we say education is important and we took huge chunks of the budget into education. If housing is important then let’s do some law which gives the contributors of the pension fund the benefit in the long run.”

In the long run, the minister said Ghanaians would be left with choosing between using pension stipends to pay rent “or is it sensible that in the long run the pension fund will be affected but you will own a house eventually.”

“I think that this is an equation that will take a lot of confusion for anybody to reject… Those who contribute to the fund will be interested in this arrangement and more so, those who do not contribute to the fund will rush to contribute and enlarge the financial space for a majority of our people who own houses,” he added.