Exploring the awareness, preparedness and the state of pension among informal workers in Ghana

Abstract

The study explored the awareness, preparedness, and the state of pensions among informal workers in Ghana. The interpretive approach and the exploratory research design were used for this study. The snowball and purposive sampling techniques were adopted to select 45 informal workers in Ghana and two management members of a pension scheme in Ghana. Data gathered was transcribed, coded and analysed with the qualitative interpretative analytical framework. The study found that the majority of respondents had a partial understanding or lack of understanding of pension, SSNIT tier 1,2 and 3 pension schemes. Informal workers were identified to really have pension needs and desired to contribute towards their old age. Regarding how informal workers want to contribute towards their pension, the study found that most respondents wanted to contribute a monthly amount of GH 50–100 through either “momo” platforms or agents of pension schemes that were not part of the existing pension scheme by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust. Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) came out as the favourite pension house among informal workers in Ghana. It was therefore recommended that managers of pension schemes in Ghana should embark on more vigorous sensitisation programmes and consider the variability of the income of informal workers in coming out with a minimum rate for contribution to pension schemes for informal workers. It is further recommended that managers of pension schemes for informal workers should provide mobile money platforms and mobile agents to visit and collect contributions so that informal workers can continue to work on their busy work schedules while contributing to pension schemes.

Keywords

• Informal workers
• Pension
• Social security
• SSNIT
• Knowledge
• Awareness