Accra (Greater Accra), 7 Dec ’98 – Mr David Kotei, Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the Pensioners’ Association, yesterday appealed to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust Fund(SSNIT) to increase the pension of its members to enhance their standard of living. He said what they received this year was woefully inadequate and did very little to alleviate their suffering. Mr Kotei, who made the appeal at this year’s annual get-together of the association, said: ”we want to die in dignity and not in poverty”. He said the regional association’s membership this year rose by 12 per cent to 3,200. He did not, however, figures regarding the membership of the association for 1997. Mr Kotei commended SSNIT for providing the association with a bus, national and regional offices which made it easier for its members to interact. Mr Charles Asare, Director-General of SSNIT, advised pensioners, Especially, those on government roll, to work on their life certificates to prevent their names from being deleted from the pension voucher. To address the problem, he said a letter will be sent to all pensioners explaining the relevance of the life certificate in the administration of the pension scheme. Mr Asare hoped that the results of the pilot scheme of the National Insurance Scheme currently taking place in the Eastern region will give a clear indication as to how it would address the needs of pensioners. Mr S.S. Akpor-Mensah, National Chairman of the association, said SSNIT should not encounter any problem taking good care of its pensioners in view of the prudent and viable investment it has made. ”We, therefore, appeal to SSNIT to take advantages of the Price Waterhouse reports when determining the next indexing on humanitarian grounds”. Mr E.A. Sai, a pensioner, advised workers to always save something out of their scanty salaries so that when they retire they can depend on it. Awards were given to dedicated members and executives of the association.
