Joyce Bawa Mogtari, a prominent member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has expressed skepticism regarding the President’s assertion that the Self-Employed Enrolment Drive (SEED) has successfully enrolled 600,000 self-employed Ghanaians.
According to Mogtari, the President’s claim is inaccurate and contradictory. To support her argument, she shared a video interview featuring Dr. John Ofori-Tenkorang, the Director-General of SSNIT, who expressed concern over the lack of participation in the Self-Employed Enrolment Drive (SEED). Dr. Ofori-Tenkorang revealed that out of the 245,000 pensioners who received their monthly payments from SSNIT, only 630 were self-employed individuals.
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Dr. Ofori-Tenkorang believes that the Self-Employed Enrolment Drive (SEED) initiative aims to ensure that a larger number of self-employed individuals will retire and receive their contributions to the scheme in the next decade. This indicates that the scheme is working towards increasing the number of self-employed individuals who will benefit from social security coverage.
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During the State of the Nation Address (SONA), the President emphasized the importance of considering Ghanaians young people and the informal sector when discussing employment and job opportunities. He acknowledged that the formal sector represents only a small portion of the working population and that the majority of workers in the country do not have any pension coverage.
To address this issue, SSNIT launched the Self-Employed Enrolment Drive (SEED) in May of the previous year. The initiative aims to enhance coverage and expand the contributor base of the SSNIT Scheme.
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Since its launch, approximately 600,000 Ghanaians self-employed individuals have been enrolled in the program, providing them with some form of social security coverage.