Takoradi, May 26, GNA – The National Pension Regulatory Authority (NPRA) in the Western Region has held a day’s sensitization workshop for human Resource (HR) practitioners and heads of institutions to educate them on the Three Tier Pension Scheme.
The exercise formed part of the authority’s mandate to engage stakeholders to enlighten them on the Three Tier Pension Scheme and to seek their views so as to address their concerns and improve the Scheme.
Mr Stanley Ogoe, Zonal Head of NPRA for Western, Central and Western North Regions in his presentation announced that the 1st and 2nd Tier Schemes were mandatory for formal sector workers and voluntary for the informal sector workers.
He explained that the essence of the exercise was to let stakeholders including employees, employers and the public abreast themselves with the Three Tier Pension Scheme.
He pointed out that contributors of the pension schemes benefited from monthly pension payment on retirement, invalidity and survivors’ benefits, as well as tax exemptions on their contributions.
Mr Ogoe advised both employees and employers to take advantage of the 16.5% tax free payment to invest in the scheme for the future, since it was the most secure investment for future development.
He said it was best for contributors to engage their trustees on pension issues and emphasized that the law mandated employees to take the 5.5% contribution from their employers to be given to a trustee to invest it on their behalf.
He implored employees to insist on their employers to make deductions from their salaries towards pension and not to agree with employers who try to convince them under the pretext that they would give them the money in bulk when they are due for pension.
Mr Ogoe urged them to ensure that their employers paid their monthly pension contributions regularly and reported any challenges to the NPRA for the enforcement of the law.
GNA