Financial Services Provider BEIGE has launched a Tier-3 personal pension scheme targeted at ensuring financial independence for subscribers during retirement.
The ‘EveryDayPension’ retirement plan allows subscribers to save at least GH¢50 a month to enable them to secure comfortable financial future.
Speaking at a forum Thursday before the launch of the scheme at the Holiday Inn in Accra, Director of Planning, Research, Monitoring and Evaluation at the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) Ernest Amartey-Vondee said due to lack of proper pensions planning, many Ghanaians receive very meagre pensions during retirement.
Citing recent figures from the Social Security and National Insurant Trust (SSNIT), Mr. Amartey-Vondee revealed that more than half of the total number of people on pensions receive less than GH¢500 a month from SSNIT because of poor planning.
He revealed further that as at December 2017, some 189, 549 people are on pensions and out of this number 110, 292 (58.2%) receive less than GH¢500.
Again, only 17,365 people on pension currently receive GH¢1,000 a month, meaning that 86.25% of Ghanaians receive pensions less than GH¢1,000.
He said the figures show a poor pensions planning culture among Ghanaians.
According to him, because during retirement the expenses of retirees are likely to be higher, there was a need to reverse the trend and ensure that workers in both the formal and informal and informal sector actively work towards a comfortable retirement.
In response to the poor retirement planning among the majority of Ghanaians, BEIGE has begun a nationwide campaign to highlight the need for financial independence during retirement.
The campaign, according to the Managing Director of BEIGE Pensions Trust, Richmond Kwame Frimpong, will target Ghanaians in both the formal and informal sectors.
The BEIGE Group, firmed up its pensions arsenal when it acquired Universal Pensions Master Trust (UPMT), a licensed corporate trustee in 2017 – bringing to two the number of corporate trustees it acquired.
BEIGE’s first acquisition of a corporate trustee firm was in 2014 and the acquired firm was Legacy Pension Trust (LPT).
The transactions are key steps in BEIGE’s strategy to affirm its status and capacity to serve as a provider of a broad range of financial services.
Board Chair of The BEIGE Bank Kofi Otutu Adu Labi also called for consistency in the payment towards pensions plans by persons already subscribed to a scheme.
“The money that you earn today, however little, is a seed for tomorrow’s harvest,” he advised the delegates at the well-attended forum.
The delegates, drawn from both the formal and informal sectors, are partners of The Beige Group.
Prof Stephen Adei, Board Chair of The BEIGE Group, lauded the launch of the EveryDay Pensions scheme and the nationwide campaign.
As part of the campaign, BEIGE Pensions will visit target locations to offer free advice on pension planning, banking, insurance and investment.
“The pension scheme is also very good for our country. All the countries that have made it have had a source of stable long-term capital and the pensions funds are the drivers of successful economies,” Prof Adei said.
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