Managing Director of EDC Investment Ltd., Paul Kofi Mante
The Managing Director of EDC Investment Ltd., Paul Kofi Mante, has bemoaned the state of pensions in Ghana currently.
According to him, only about 10% of Ghanaians have pension schemes.
According to him, a lot of Ghanaians who are enrolled on SSNIT earn below GH¢5,000 as a monthly pension.
He noted that workers must make sure to invest in their future in order to improve their quality of life even after retirement.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Business and Financial Times – Ecobank The Money Summit, he said, “About over 90% of people who are on pension at the moment are getting less than 5,000 cedis a month. But my biggest worry is the fact that we should average about 2 million people who are more than 60.
“But the number of people who are on the SSNIT pension at the moment is less than 300,000. So the question we need to ask is, what happens to that? About 1.7 million other people are not on the SSNIT pension,” he added.
The Money Summit was under the theme, “Optimising Investment and Pensions Management: Strategies for Sustainable Retirement Income and Economic Growth”.
According to Mante, several factors prevent people from investing, including low salaries.
He, however, noted that despite these challenges, it is important to invest in a wealthier future.
“And one of the reasons why it’s important to invest is that you want to invest towards old age. And in the session, we talked about the number of reasons, like low monthly payment, monthly pension payment in several developing countries, including Ghana.
“We discuss things like longer life expectancy. People are living longer than before. So, the retirement age is 60. So you can easily retire at 60 and live to 90, or live till 85. That will be 85 years without a regular monthly income. And the fact that children should be seen as a responsibility rather than a retirement plan,” he noted.
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