The Social Security and National Insurance Trust has achieved a significant milestone with over two million active contributors, marking steady growth in Ghana’s pension system despite challenges with millions of dormant accounts that continue to undermine the scheme’s reach.
Director-General Kwesi Afreh Biney announced the milestone at the 2025 SSNIT Media Connect held in Accra on Thursday, attributing growth to sustained digital transformation and targeted enrollment campaigns, particularly among informal sector workers who have historically remained outside the social protection system.
The private sector now accounts for roughly two-thirds of all contributors, with over 96,000 private establishments registered under the scheme. This shift reflects increased formalization, improved employer compliance, and growing confidence in SSNIT’s digital systems that have made contributions and benefit claims more transparent than in previous decades.
SSNIT defines active members as contributors who have made at least one valid contribution within the past 12 months. Out of approximately four million total members registered with the Trust, about 2.9 million meet this definition of active status, while 257,000 retirees currently receive monthly pensions. The difference between total membership and active contributors highlights a persistent problem that affects social security systems across Africa.
According to Biney, SSNIT’s total contributions reached GH₵7.6 billion in 2025, while pension payments to retirees amounted to over GH₵5 billion as of September. These figures demonstrate the scheme’s financial flows but also reveal the substantial resources required to maintain pension obligations to a growing retiree population.
The Trust paid approximately GH₵5.1 billion in pensions through October, providing critical income support to over a quarter million Ghanaians who’ve exited the workforce. For many retirees, especially those from lower income brackets, these monthly payments represent their primary or sole source of regular income in old age.
General Manager for Operations Philip Kofi Senyah assured stakeholders at the media engagement that SSNIT remains financially sustainable, offering what he described as 300 percent sustainability assurance. He noted the Trust has strategically invested in 22 out of 34 active companies on the Ghana Stock Exchange, diversifying its portfolio across multiple economic sectors.
This investment strategy matters because SSNIT must generate returns sufficient to meet future pension obligations while maintaining adequate reserves. The Trust’s portfolio includes real estate holdings, equity investments, and fixed income securities designed to balance risk and return over the long term.
However, beneath these encouraging statistics lies a troubling reality. As of May 2025, approximately 2.75 million SSNIT accounts remained dormant, representing members who haven’t made contributions in over 12 months. These dormant accounts include deceased contributors whose families haven’t claimed survivor benefits, workers who’ve moved to informal employment without continuing contributions, and people who simply stopped paying into the system.
The dormant accounts crisis represents not just administrative challenges but real lives and families waiting for assistance that may never come. Many families remain unaware they’re entitled to survivor benefits when a contributing member dies. The onus falls on families to report deaths to SSNIT, but many don’t understand this requirement or lack the capacity to navigate bureaucratic processes while grieving.
Biney highlighted SSNIT’s ongoing efforts to expand coverage to Ghana’s vast informal economy, which represents about 80 percent of the national workforce. One key initiative is the Self-Employed Enrolment Drive, known as SEED, launched in May 2023 to bring informal workers into the social protection system.
Through SEED, SSNIT has enrolled more than 100,000 self-employed workers, a meaningful achievement but still a small fraction of the millions who remain outside any retirement savings system. The challenge with informal workers involves not just initial enrollment but sustaining regular contributions when incomes fluctuate and immediate needs compete with long-term savings goals.
Biney expressed optimism that continued innovation and partnerships will help reach even more people who previously had no form of social protection. This optimism must be tempered by recognition that informal workers face genuine barriers to participation, including irregular income, lack of employer matching contributions, and limited understanding of pension benefits that may seem abstract compared to pressing daily expenses.
The Director-General traced Ghana’s pension system evolution from a provident fund under the Social Insurance Corporation in the 1960s to the three-tier structure introduced in 2010. Under the current system, 18.5 percent of an employee’s basic salary goes toward social protection: 13.5 percent to SSNIT’s Tier One, 5 percent to Tier Two, and 2.5 percent to the National Health Insurance Scheme.
This contribution structure applies to formal sector workers with regular salaries and employers who deduct and remit contributions. For self-employed workers, the reality differs significantly. They must voluntarily contribute without employer matching and often struggle to maintain consistent payments when business income varies.
Biney reaffirmed SSNIT’s commitment to improving transparency and service delivery through digital tools including online member registration, contribution tracking, and mobile payment options. These technological improvements represent genuine progress from the manual, paper-based systems that characterized SSNIT operations for decades.
The digitalization drive has made it easier for members to check contribution records, verify benefit entitlements, and submit claims without physically visiting SSNIT offices. Mobile money integration allows informal workers to make contributions through their phones, removing the friction of bank visits that previously discouraged participation.
However, technology alone cannot solve deeper structural challenges. Many informal workers lack the financial literacy to understand how pension accumulation works or why they should prioritize retirement savings over immediate consumption. Cultural expectations that children will provide old-age support compete with formal pension schemes, particularly in communities where traditional extended family systems remain strong.
Corporate Affairs Manager Victoria Gifty Abaidoo commended the media for their role in public education and building trust in Ghana’s pension system. She emphasized that media plays a crucial role in shaping public understanding by sharing real stories of contributors and pensioners whose lives have been transformed through SSNIT benefits.
The Media Connect platform was designed to deepen collaboration between SSNIT and journalists, ensuring accurate reporting and stronger public engagement on social protection issues. This matters because misinformation about pension schemes can undermine confidence and discourage participation, particularly among younger workers who view retirement as too distant to worry about.
Abaidoo urged journalists to continue highlighting success stories that demonstrate the tangible value of consistent contributions over time. These stories can be powerful because abstract discussions of replacement rates and benefit formulas mean little to ordinary workers compared to concrete examples of pensioners living with dignity because they contributed throughout their working lives.
Ghana’s journey toward a national pension system dates back to 1960, when Dr. Kwame Nkrumah first proposed creating a national fund for workers. Parliament later passed the Social Security Act of 1965 to establish a Social Security Fund covering old age, invalidity, and survivors’ benefits.
In 1972, the National Redemption Council Decree 127 created SSNIT as an autonomous body to manage the scheme. This institutional independence aimed to insulate pension management from political interference and ensure contributions were invested prudently rather than diverted for other purposes.
Ghana joined the International Social Security Association after transforming its provident fund into a pension scheme in 1991, a system that continues evolving through digital innovation and policy reforms. The 1991 conversion from provident fund to pension scheme represented a fundamental shift in how benefits are structured and calculated.
Under the provident fund model, members received lump sum payments of accumulated contributions plus interest. The pension scheme model provides both lump sums and monthly annuities, offering retirees predictable income streams rather than just one-time payments that might be quickly exhausted.
The 2010 pension reforms introduced the three-tier structure aimed at strengthening social security coverage and ensuring adequate replacement income for retirees. Tier One through SSNIT provides basic social security protection with defined benefits. Tier Two consists of mandatory occupational pension schemes managed by private trustees. Tier Three allows voluntary provident fund and personal pension savings.
This multi-tier approach spreads retirement security across different institutional mechanisms, theoretically providing more robust protection than relying solely on SSNIT. However, implementation challenges have limited effectiveness, particularly for Tier Two schemes that have faced governance issues and lower than expected returns in some cases.
Biney’s announcement about hotel investments generated significant interest at the media engagement. He categorically stated SSNIT will not sell its hotel properties, contradicting persistent speculation about potential divestment. He specifically cited Labadi Beach Hotel as delivering strong returns, with GH₵8 million in dividends paid for 2023 and additional payments expected.
Rather than selling hotels like the Elmina Beach property, SSNIT seeks partnerships to revamp and upgrade facilities to meet international standards. This strategy aims to boost investment returns without liquidating assets that could appreciate further or generate consistent income over time.
The hotel portfolio represents just one component of SSNIT’s diversified investment strategy. The Trust holds stakes across financial services, manufacturing, real estate, and other sectors, attempting to generate returns that keep pace with inflation while managing risk appropriately for a pension fund with long-term obligations.
Critics have questioned whether SSNIT should be operating hotels at all, arguing the Trust should focus on financial investments rather than managing hospitality properties. Defenders counter that real estate and operating businesses can provide stable returns and inflation hedges that complement financial assets in a balanced portfolio.
The growth to over two million active contributors represents progress, but context matters. With Ghana’s labor force estimated at roughly 14 million people, SSNIT’s active membership covers less than one quarter of workers. This coverage gap leaves millions of Ghanaians, particularly in the informal sector, without any formal retirement savings or social protection.
Expanding coverage requires addressing multiple barriers simultaneously: improving financial literacy so workers understand pension benefits, making contributions affordable and flexible for irregular incomes, building trust that contributions will be safe and benefits will be paid, and creating enforcement mechanisms to ensure employers actually remit deducted contributions.
The dormant accounts crisis underscores the difference between enrollment and active participation. Getting someone to register proves easier than ensuring they contribute consistently over decades. SSNIT’s challenge involves not just adding members but keeping them engaged and contributing regularly until retirement.
For Ghana to achieve universal pension coverage, fundamental questions must be addressed about the appropriate design for informal sector schemes, the balance between mandatory and voluntary participation, and the level of government subsidy needed to make participation feasible for the poorest workers.
The 2025 Media Connect highlighted progress but also implicitly acknowledged work remaining. SSNIT has built infrastructure, improved service delivery, and expanded membership. However, translating these achievements into comprehensive social protection for all Ghanaians requires sustained effort beyond what any single institution can accomplish alone.
Success ultimately depends on coordination across multiple stakeholders including employers who must remit contributions honestly, workers who must understand and value retirement savings, financial sector regulators who must ensure prudent investment management, and government which must create policy frameworks that encourage participation while protecting member interests.
Biney’s optimism about future growth seems warranted given recent trends, but achieving truly inclusive coverage that protects all workers throughout their retirement years remains an aspiration rather than current reality for Ghana’s pension system.