The Public Relations Officer of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Mr Charles Nii Akwei Garshon has encouraged self-employed people in the country to join the pension scheme to insure their income before they retire.

According to him, many self-employed persons in the country are not on the scheme, adding that “over the years, we have focused on salaried workers leaving these people out.”

He said SSNIT Pension Scheme was a basic pension scheme that was necessary for workers in both the formal and informal sector and hence SSNIT was educating more people to join through the Self-Employed Enrolment Drive (SEED).

Mr Garshon was speaking during a training workshop organised for the media in Koforidua to school them on the activities of SSNIT and the SEED initiative.

Mr Garshon indicated that because the focus of his outfit has been on salaried workers for long time, only 38,000 workers were signed unto the pension scheme.

He stated that there was the need for more people to join the pension scheme to enable them insure their income and earn monthly salaries when they retire.

The PRO stated that most of the time, some retirees especially the self-employed found themselves in outmost poverty due to an unplanned pension scheme to insure their income when they were in active service.

He said SSNIT was poised to reducing the canker of old-age poverty in the country among such persons who sometimes over-rely on their children as a source of pension income and reiterated the need to reverse the trend and expand the basic pension scheme to such people.

“A time comes when an individual would not be fit to work and in a country where a lot of people depend on family and friends, there is a need for us to expand the basic society security scheme coverage to everyone. That is why this year we have rolled out massive campaign,” she said.

He said the SEED initiative would lessen the burden on government with social intervention programme like the Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty and added “once people are getting some income from SSNIT, government can redirect such interventions to other places.”

He also revealed that there were instances where people received invalidity pension after they have been declared by medical doctors as not fit to work and advised the self-employed to join the scheme to insure their income in moments where the unfortunate happens, adding that they would be covered.

Ama Tekyiwaa Ampadu Agyeman, Koforidua