Tema, Oct 29, GNA – The National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) has climaxed its national pensions awareness week celebration with the opening of its Tema Zonal Office, the fifth office nationwide.
Mr Hayford Attah Krufi, Chief Executive Officer of the NPRA, said the opening of the office was to bring its services closer to the people.
The new office adds up to the zonal offices in Kumasi, Tamale, Takoradi and Sunyani with a sixth one expected to be opened in 2022 at Koforidua.
Mr Krufi said the offices would enable the Authority, which was established with the National Pensions Act 766 of 2008, to discharge its mandate of overseeing the administration of pensions in Ghana and regulating and monitoring activities of pension managers and trustees, among others.
He said NPRA deemed it appropriate to situate a zonal office in Tema to serve the many companies, employees and informal workers within the industrial city and its environs.
He said the Authority was working to get informal workers to join pension schemes to secure their future when they no longer have the strength to engage in tedious work.
The CEO further said the office would strengthen education and sensitization in the zone to ensure that people understood that pension contributions were not only for the formal sector but for anyone earning some form of income from the age of 15 to 60 years.
He added that staff would also be visiting the various workplaces within the area to ensure they comply with the pension payment of their staff.
Mr Krufi also encouraged pension contributors and prospective ones to use the facility to check on their contributions and find out how they could register for the various schemes.
Mr Bright Wereko Brobbey, Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, commended the NPRA for taking their services close to the people by opening more offices and discharging their duties professionally.
Mr Brobbey said there was the need to get informal workers to think about their pensions, saying out of the more than 11 million workers in Ghana, nine million were in the informal sector.
He said employment was not only formal, adding that it was worrying that people only thought of formal work as employment making those earning incomes rather than from formal referring to themselves as unemployed.
Mr Brobbey, therefore, called on such persons to safeguard their future by visiting the NRPA offices to find out how best they could contribute to pension schemes.
The Deputy Minister also urged staff, who would be posted to the Tema Zonal Office, not to only create awareness on pensions but should have the patience for clients, especially desperate pensioners who would visit the office with issues.
Mr Isaac Ashai Odamtten, Tema East Member of Parliament, on his part also commended the management of the NPRA for creating the needed awareness on pensions and called on staff to also be interested in the happenings in companies in the area.
GNA