The Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Haruna Iddrisu, has disclosed government has given policy approval for the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) to be weaned-off its subventions — and hence has called for new policy investment guidelines to steer the use of pension resources.
He said this means that the NPRA will no longer be on government’s payroll but will have to find ways to be on its own, as the latest decision makes it operationally and financially independent.
According to the minister, the decision to remove the NPRA from government funding forms part efforts to reform and rationalise the compensation budget. He mentioned that the Employment and Labour Relations Ministry, Finance Ministry, and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission are to this point working out the conclusions.
The minister, who made this announcement at the official opening of the NPRA zonal office in Kumasi, said that “government will at all times guarantee pension income security for all Ghanaians”.
He conceded that the delays in release of funds held in the temporary pension fund account of the Bank of Ghana denied some better investment opportunities that the monies could have been used for. However, he gave assurance that government has resolved with organised labour to transfer all outstanding monies to the accredited trustees by June 2016.
The Authority, as of December 2015, was said to have transferred GH¢193,116,009 to about 1,919 establishments/employers in the private sector.
The opening of the Kumasi office, the first office of the pension regulatory body outside Accra, is in fulfillment of the NPRA’s mandate within the laws governing its operations.
The Board Chairman of NPRA, Dr. Nii Kwaku Sowa, is optimistic that its presence in the region will provide the general public — and especially service providers, employers and workers — a chance to deepen their understanding of the new pension scheme and its implementation.
He noted that enrollment and participation in the Scheme has gone up through a number of activities embarked upon by the NPRA. For instance, he said it has registered about 256 schemes under the 2nd–Tier mandatory Occupational Pension Scheme.
He also said the Authority has started implementing its sanctions regime under the National Pensions Act, 2008, Act 766.