The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has awarded nine self-employed individuals for their outstanding contributions to the Scheme.
“As the Trust recognises your contributions to the Scheme towards your retirement journey, we also wish to encourage you and all self-employed contributors to continue contributing to the Scheme and enjoy the benefits”, the Director-General of SSNIT, Mr. Kofi Osafo-Maafo said.
He made these remarks during the 2024 Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, organised at the SSNIT Pension House in Accra last Friday. The event was used to honour individuals contributing under the Self-Employed Enrolment Drive (SEED).
The beneficiaries were selected from the thousands of active self-employed contributors and placed into three main categories. The categories include Top Model SEED Contributors – being contributors who have maintained the longest streak of prompt payment over the period, Exceptional SEED Contributor – for those with the highest contribution payment in 2024 and Rising Star SEED Contributor – for being the highest self-employed contributors who have never defaulted since 2023.
In all, three deserving awardees were selected from each category, bringing the total number of awardees to nine.
The purpose of the awards is to honour contributors within the self-employed sector through stakeholder awards, encourage them and inspire other self-employed persons and workers in the informal sector to continue contributing to the SSNIT Scheme.
According to Mr. Osafo-Maafo, the awardees have played a crucial role in the success and growth of the SSNIT Scheme over the years. He encouraged them to continue their commitment to the Scheme. The awardees expressed their profound appreciation to the Trust and assured SSNIT of their continued and prompt contributions.
SEED
In May last year, SSNIT launched an initiative called SEED, an acronym for Self-Employed Enrolment Drive, in Kumasi. The initiative aims to extend pension coverage to self-employed individuals and workers in the informal sector.
At the time of the launch, about 13,000 self-employed persons had enrolled in the Scheme. Currently, more than 121,000 have signed up, reflecting a significant increase.
This growth in enrolment is largely attributed to the value the Scheme provides its members, which includes benefits such as Old Age Pension, Invalidity Pension, and Survivors’ Lump Sum.
