Ecobank Ghana, one of the flagship investments of the Trust, has presented a dividend of GH¢28.8 million for 2020 to the management of SSNIT at the Pension House in Accra. This represents an increase of 83% over the last payment of GH¢15.7million.
Presenting the dividend, the Managing Director of Ecobank Ghana, Mr. Daniel Sackey mentioned that even though the Bank of Ghana had directed that dividends should not be paid for 2020, due to Covid-19 and its possible impact on the balance sheets of banks, “considering the strong performance of the bank and following further engagements with the regulator, we were given the go ahead to make the payment of the dividend.”
Mr. Daniel Sackey further commented that being one of the key investment vehicles of SSNIT, which is the second largest shareholder after Ecobank’s parent company, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, it was proper that on an annual basis the Bank comes to render accounts to the investor. He said that this year Ecobank is quite proud and happy to be able to have returned a significant amount of dividend to SSNIT.
Receiving the dividend, the Director-General of SSNIT, Dr. John Ofori-Tenkorang, thanked the Board, Management and Staff of Ecobank for ensuring the Trust’s investment yielded dividends despite the challenging times occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic. Whilst commending the Ecobank team, he said “we wished the dividend was more because we have huge monthly pensions payments we are obliged to make. Currently, we are paying about GH¢250million to pensioners monthly. We therefore anticipate higher returns for the current year considering the improvement in the economy”.
The SSNIT Scheme relies largely on contributions collected and investment returns to pay benefits to pensioners. “In running the Scheme, we rely on the returns from investments that we have in investee companies to meet our obligations” he added.
He assured that the Trust is committed to investing prudently and ensuring workers funds are safe. “Management of the Trust is committed to restructuring existing investments and investing in low risk but high yielding investments portfolios. Based on the sound policies adopted, we are confident that in the coming years, a lot more investee companies will be posting some very good returns, concluded Dr Ofori-Tenkorang.
Also commenting on the presentation, the Deputy Director-General, Investments and Development, SSNIT, Mr. Kofi Osafo Maafo, lauded the bank for their strong performance, adding that all the key indicators were showing a positive trend including a solid capital adequacy ratio of 20%.
The Trust’s investments in banks stood at GH¢1.76 billion as at December 2020. This constitutes 16.6% of the total investment portfolio of the Scheme.
With 16.21% shares, SSNIT is the second largest shareholder in Ecobank Ghana.
Present at the event, were the Executive Director in charge of Consumer Banking, Dr. Edward Botchway and the Business Manager, Mr. Isaac Baah both from Ecobank.
From SSNIT were the Corporate Affairs Manager, Ms. Afua Sarkodie, Portfolio Performance Monitoring Manager, Ms. Patience Akua Owusu and Equities and Portfolio Manager, Ms. Akosua Nelson Cofie.
