Greater percentage of Ghanaian pensioners live in penury
Lesley Dwight Mensah, an economist at the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS), a local economic policy think tank explained to Xinhua that the reason for this condition was the lack of monthly pension payment for most people after the end of their service.
“Only about 14 percent of Ghanaians in retirement age (population of 60 and above) receive a pension. As of the end of 2018, there were 1.9 million people in Ghana aged 60; and just about 270,000 of them were receiving pensions,” he indicated.
Dwight-Mensah was speaking in an interview on the sides of the one-day national pensions dialogue organized by IFS to disseminate their research findings on the sustainability and coverage of Ghana’s pension schemes.
While 200,000 were under the statutory Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) pension system, 70,000 were taking a pension from the consolidated fund.
The economist lamented that this situation had made many aged people helpless, leading to depression and other health issues.
The situation mirrored the coverage of pension contribution of the working population in the country, added Dwight-Mensah.
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