"Pensions regulation to be automated"

" Pensions regulation to be automated \r\nMr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, says the Government is working towards automating the regulation of pensions in the country.\r\n\r\nHe said it was leveraging digital technology to introduce new software for the pensions regulator, the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA).\r\n\r\nThe software, he said, would automate the regulatory processes of the NPRA and ensure real time monitoring to safeguard pensions and investments.\r\n\r\nHe said beneficiaries and service providers would be able to interface with the NPRA remotely and at their convenience without having to travel long distances to access NPRA\u2019s services.\r\n\r\n\u201cThis will not only save time but also money, which can be used to purchase various pension and social security products available on the market,\u201d he said, adding that, \u201cthis will secure a better future in retirement\u201d.\r\n\r\nThe Minister made this known in Accra during the opening of a two-day technical seminar organized by the International Social Security Association (ISSA) on the theme: \u201cDigitalization to leverage extension of social security coverage in West Africa\u201d.\r\n\r\nMr. Awuah indicated that the government had also partnered with pension trustees, telcos and banks to\r\nroll out various mobile pension products targeted largely at micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in the informal sector.\r\n\r\nThrough that, over 600,000 self-employed persons now had some form of social security programme, he\r\nstated.\r\n\r\nHe said since last year, government through the various pension agencies, had worked to bring about two million cocoa farmers onto the social security system.\r\n\r\nHe said that it would be operational by the end of this year, which would increase the number of people on social security from 1.8 million to 3.8 million.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe will not rest until we get everybody on social security,\u201d the Minister said.\r\n\r\nDr John Ofori-Tenkorang, Director-General, Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), said Africa was one of the least covered areas in using technology to help improve access to social security and protection.\r\n\r\nHe said, \u201cwe must find ways of using technology among other interventions to increase the reach of social protection for the vast majority of our people.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe Director-General said the lessons that would be learnt at the seminar must be self-evident and practical such that it would impact on how to acquire new members into the scheme.\r\n\r\nMr Marcelo Abi-Ramia Caetano, Secretary-General, International Social Security Association (ISSA), said Ghana was chosen to host the 2023 Seminar because SSNIT had shown commitment and leadership in social security administration thereby enhancing social protection in Ghana.\r\n\r\nHe said one of the major challenges hindering West African countries in social security was lack of\r\ncooperation.\r\n\r\n\u201cSo, in this seminar, we are going to see how we can use digitalisation to increase cooperation of social security, so it\u2019s a way through which the West African countries will change their experience,\u201d he added.\r\n\r\nParticipants came from Senegal, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Togo, Cote D\u2019Ivoire, and Nigeria.\r\n\r\nThe first day of the seminar was followed with the commissioning of the ISSA Liaison Office for West Africa, which officially marked the transfer of the ISSA West African host from Cote D\u2019Ivoire to Ghana."

"Pensions regulation to be automated"

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