SSNIT OPENS CONTACT OFFICE AT HOHOE (SEPT 28, PAGE 52)

The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has opened the first contact office of the Informal Sector Fund in the Volta Region at Hohoe.
The fund, which was established in 2008, is to provide social protection for workers in the informal sector, which employs about 85 per cent of the working population of Ghana.
Inaugurating the fund on behalf of the Director General of SSNIT, Mr Kwasi Boatin, the General Manager in charge of Operations, Mrs Gifty Anterkyi, said since the trust was established 40 years ago efforts to incorporate the informal sector into the scheme had been unsuccessful.
He said, however, that after successful pilot projects the fund was established.
He said the fund had the potential to facilitate the development efforts of the Government, and urged the operators in the sector to patronise the fund in order to provide them with livelihood in their old age.
The Managing Director of the Informal Sector Fund, Dr Francis Sapara-Grant, said the fund at present was operating in 15 branches and contact offices in six regions of the country ,and that it was meant for self-employed workers like traders, drivers, hairdressers, seamstresses, farmers, among others.
He said the fund was flexible, voluntary, attractive, easy to withdraw, and could be used as collateral to secure credit from financial institutions.
He said the fund also provided such benefits as old age retirement pension, disability benefits and survivor’s benefits.
The Volta Regional Minister, Mr Joseph Amenowode, said the first contact office was established at Hohoe because of the various prospects it held for the informal sector.
“ The municipality has a large population of small-scale businesses that cut across various sectors of the national economy, namely agriculture, commerce, transport, mining, industry and services.
Furthermore the municipality is home to other formal sector institutions, including banks and insurance companies, which are necessary for facilitating business transactions, ” he added.
The Paramount Chief of the Gbi Traditional Area, Togbega Gabusu VI, welcomed the new scheme and gave a promise that Hohoe, the vibrant commercial centre in the region, would patronise it.