The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has launched its annual Mobile Service Week in Ho in the Volta Region under the theme, “You also deserve a Pension: Join SSNIT today”.
The SSNIT Mobile Service (SMS) Week is an annual event that provides SSNIT branches the opportunity to pitch camp at various locations across the country to bring the services of the Trust to the doorsteps of its Members and Clients.
The event which is being observed from today, 3rd October, 2022 is expected to end on Friday, 7th October, 2022, and has a total of sixty-nine (69) vantage locations selected across the sixteen (16) regions of the country to provide services to members and clients to enable them to access the services of the Trust with ease.
Services being offered include the issuance of Statements of Accounts, registration of employers and workers, benefits processing initiation, renewal of Pensioner Certificates, merging of SSNIT and NIA numbers, and general inquiries about the business and operations of SSNIT among other services.
Delivering his keynote address, the Director-General (D-G) of SSNIT, Dr John Ofori-Tenkorang, announced that the theme for the occasion was borne out of the Trust’s commitment to ensure that every worker in Ghana receives a decent pension.
He said this year’s SMS also coincides with Customer Service Week which is an international celebration instituted in 1991 and observed in the first week of October.
“The week is commemorated to appreciate the importance of customer service and of the people who serve and support customers daily”, he disclosed.
He said Customer Service Week was observed in the first week of October and the event is celebrated annually across the globe to emphasize the importance of customer service and the people who provide those services.
The celebration, he said aims at raising awareness on the value of customer service, rewarding employees for the significant work outputs, improving morale in the workplace, and building on teamwork among other reasons.
Dr Ofori-Tenkorang indicated that since the beginning of the year, the Trust has been engaging stakeholders of the Scheme notably, players in the informal sector and self-employed as well as regional and district leaders of Organised Labour.
He mentioned that the engagements formed part of deliberate efforts to extend coverage to the many self-employed workers who do not have any form of social security cover.
Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Yao Letsa commended the Management of SSNIT for leveraging technology to make the services of the Trust more accessible to members and clients.
“Technology has allowed for the reduction of administrative costs associated with printing of SSNIT Cards and reduced the time pensioners have to wait to collect their first pension as they can now payment within a maximum of two weeks after submitting their application”, he stated.
He bemoaned the situation where the majority of Ghanaians especially those in the informal sector have not registered with the Trust and are being denied the benefits it offers to people who retired from active service.
He, therefore, implored members of the informal sector to consider enrolling themselves and their employees in the trust to take advantage of the benefits it offers.
