Takoradi, Aug. 19, GNA – The Ghanaian worker in the formal and informal sector have been warned of the inherent dangers of lack of proper planning before retirement and its resultant effects on life and living.
Such inherent dangers included early deaths, alcoholism, low self-esteem, loneliness, huge medical bills and health care, coupled with cut on financial inflows.
Mr. John Garbrah, Human Resource (HR) practitioner and Vice President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), said this at a Retirement Seminar organized by the Negotiated Benefits Trust Company Limited, (NBC Ghana Trust) at Takoradi in the Western Region.
The NBC Ghana Trust seminar was on the theme, “Empowering the Ghanaian worker to retire in dignity”.
The HR practitioner stressed the need for all workers to start preparing for retirement and make good investment immediately they commenced any income generating activity.
He added, ” invest while working, cut your coat according to your cloth…buy fixed deposits, treasuries and other profitable investment packages…do some commercial farming activity if you can”.
The retirement seminar, was to give members and the working population a practical view of what was to retire and the need for a painless Transition of a working class to a “redundant” individual.
The company, used the opportunity to launch its NBC Gold Pension Plan to attract more and more people from the informal sector in particular.
Mr. Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, the Western Regional Minister, said Personal financial planning determined one’s satisfaction during retirement.
“There is the need to be ready for any unforeseen financial emergencies. We must understand that, growing old can be expensive, although some expenses might reduce, medical bills are only likely to rise. .. the purpose of retiring with dignity is to ensure financial stability in our later years without depending on others.”
The Minister therefore noted the need for many people to consider insurance as an essential part of retirement planning describing it as vital and a necessary component.
He said though there were many uncertainties regarding the future, but good preparation could be a panacea,” Let us expand the retirement mass by investing in mutual funds, fixed-income securities, and other government-backed pension/trust companies for the later years to be relaxed.”
The National Pensions Regulatory Authority (N.P.R.A.) in its national educational campaign, has been educating workers on the 3-Tier Pension scheme.
The Authority has stressed on the need for employers to join or register on the Pension Scheme to benefit fully from its provision in the National Pensions Act, 2008 (Act 766).
The Tier 3 Pension Scheme is with the objective of ensuring retirement income security for the Ghanaian worker. It is also a contributory scheme with monthly contributions of up to 16.5% of the employee’s basic salary of all employees and informal sector workers. We must embrace this to enjoy its benefit in our retirement age.
Mr. Okyere Darko-Mensah said private sector participation was laudable and urged the service providers to ensure or promote security of retirement funds for workers in both the formal and informal sector.
Mr. William Asiedu Yeboah, the Chief Executive Officer of the NBC Ghana Trust, said their ten years of doing business in Ghana had showed many gaps in the informal sector and the need for all of them to be captured into the pension scheme.
He said the gap, had spiked the expansion drive to provide a safe, secure and reliable pensions.
GNA