December 2019

Labor Supply Responses to Health Shocks : Evidence from High-Frequency Labor Market Data from Urban Ghana: World Bank Group Publications

By World Bank Group Publications, World Bank Group, World Bank, Heath Rachel, Mansuri Ghazala, Rijkers Bob Workers in developing countries are subject to frequent health shocks. Using 10 weeks of high-frequency labor market data that were collected in urban Ghana, this paper documents that men are 9 percentage points more likely to work in weeks in which another worker in the household is unexpectedly ill. The paper provides suggestive evidence that these effects are strongest among very risk averse...

Ghana. Government Staff Association Against Extension of Tier 2 Pension Implementation Date

The Civil and Local Government Staff Association, Ghana (CLOGSAG) says it will not compromise on the January 1, 2020 implementation of the TIER 2 Pension Scheme. Executive Secretary of CLOGSAG, Isaac Bampoe-Addo, said, the continuous extension of implementation of the Scheme, empowers the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to monopolise pension administration in the country, thereby rendering workers worse off. Addressing a press conference in Accra yesterday, he stated that, none of the public sector occupational pension...

Ghana. SSNIT commits to scheme’s sustainability

Management of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has indicated its intention to continue engaging the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) and other key stakeholders concerning recent agitations on the computation of past credit of contributors who are due for retirement effective January 1, 2020. Read also Nigeria: Court Orders Govt to Recover Pensions Paid to Ex-Governors Who Serve As Ministers, Senators Already, the NPRA has mandated the Trust to further compile a report on computation of past...

November 2019

Ghana. Health sector pensioners assured of lump sum payments come January 2020

The Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Health Sector Occupational Pension Scheme (HSOPS) has assured its contributors that they are reasonably ready to take over payments of lump sum come January 2020. Dr Derek Amoateng, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Health Sector Occupational Pension Scheme, gave the assurance at the commissioning of the Scheme's temporary secretariat located on the premises of the Greater Accra Regional Office of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association's (GRNMA)...

October 2019

NBC Ghana Trust CEO calls for transparency in Pension Trustee Administration

The Chief Executive Officer of Negotiated Benefits Trust Company Limited (NBC Ghana Trust), William Asiedu Yeboah, has called for transparency in corporate and individual trustee administration following the impact of the recent banking reforms undertaken by the Bank of Ghana. Mr. Yeboah explained that “the trustees (corporate and individual) licensed are required to provide regular reports on all aspects of the fund administration and investment activities. Regular audits are required in addition to robust data management systems. Annual audits...

September 2019

Ghana Pension Funds Are Shielded From Crisis-Hit Ghana. Money Managers

Ghana’s pension funds are safe from the crisis engulfing money managers caught in the aftermath of a banking-industry cleanup. “The only way some may have been affected is if they made fixed-term investments with some of the banks that were shut down,” Hayford Attah Krufi, chief executive officer of the National Pensions Regulatory Authority, said in an interview. “But, because the government bailed out depositors, those investments are still safe.” The West African nation’s markets regulator is investigating 21...

Ghana. NPRA assures workers of payment of Three-Tier pension benefits

The National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) has given the assurance that the industry was ready for the first batch of Ghanaian workers who would be retiring at age 60 in 2020 to begin enjoying their benefits under the new Three-Tier Pension Scheme. As of December 2018, the total Pension Fund had increased to Gh¢22.2 billion from the about Gh¢20.7 billion in 2017. This is made up of Gh¢13.1 billion of Assets Under Management (AUM) for Private Pension Funds and...

August 2019

Execute your watchdog role effectively: President of Ghana to regulatory agencies

President Akufo-Addo has charged regulatory agencies in Ghana to be up and doing in the discharge of their duties in order to safeguard the activities of the private sector. Addressing the opening ceremony of the National Conference on the Implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement in Ghana on the theme; “Harnessing the Benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) for a Ghana Beyond Aid,” at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC), President Akufo-Addo...

Ghana. Government pays GHC3.1bn to pension scheme

Government has released some 3.1billion cedis which were kept into the Pensions Trust Fund Account into the custodian accounts of the various public and private Sector pension schemes. Minister for Employment and Labour Relations Ignatius Baffour-Awuah who disclosed this at the Meet the Press series in Accra said the schemes include the Ghana Education Service Occupational Pension Scheme, Health Sector Occupational Pension Scheme, Judicial Service Occupational Pension Scheme, Hedge Master Trust Occupational Pension Scheme and Public Sector Workers Employees’ Pension...

July 2019

Ghana. IFS National Pension Dialogue

In 2006, Ghana began a review of its pension system to identify ways of ensuring better income security for Ghanaian pensioners. The review culminated in the enactment of a new National Pension Act (Act 766) in 2008. The law establishes a new contributory three-tier pension scheme and a regulatory oversight body, the National Pension Regulatory Authority (NPRA), to oversee administration of the composite pension scheme. Under the law, which remains in force today, 13.5% of an employee’s basic salary...