Some GH¢14 million has been retrieved from non-compliant companies – employers, under the second tier pension scheme, over the past year, the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), has said.
The amount, according to NPRA’s deputy Chief Executive Officer, David Abbey, was recovered from the first quarter of 2022 to till date.
Mr. Abbey disclosed this to the B&FT when the Minister of Employment, Labour Relations and Pensions (MELR), Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, paid a working visit to the NPRA in Accra.
He said the pensions’ regulator expects trustees and employees to whistle-blow defaulting employers for actions to be taken against them for non-compliance.
Although the NPRA has power to prosecute defaulting employers, Mr. Abbey maintained that the authority needs information from trustees and individuals to investigate, retrieve contributions and where possible, prosecute recalcitrant companies.
“After detecting and writing to such defaulters to settle the arrears to no avail, an arrest warrant is obtained for the arrest of such employers with a court action. The monies are then collected subsequently,” he noted.
Addressing the media during the visit, Mr. Baffour-Awuah pointed out that his main focus as a minister in charge of pensions would be to improve and augment the percentage of pension’s penetration.
The domestic insurance and pensions market has grown in recent years, but penetration remains low, as statistics indicate that pension’s coverage by SSNIT was about two million out of a working population of some 14 million people.
This, according to the minister, would require massive sensitisation to enable Ghanaians to see the positives of pensions and the need to ensure and monitor their contributions.
Through the visit, the MELR also discussed its policy perspectives and how the NPRA can align with it. Mr. Baffour-Awuah hinted that the MELR will consider proposals by the NPRA to review the current Pensions Act, (Act 766).
“The review of the Act is a major preoccupation. It has been in use for the past 13 years and I am in agreement for its review. That, however, will involve some amount of work through Parliament,” he indicated.
