Five teachers receive pension package from Teacher’s Fund
The management of the Teacher’s Fund, a subsidiary group of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), has presented GH¢203,372.4 to five teachers who are on retirement.
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Each of the five recipients, who were contributors to the fund, took home cheques ranging from GH¢31,000 to GH¢50,000 as their pension package for contributing to the fund since its inception in 1998.
The General Secretary of GNAT, Mr David Ofori Acheampong, commended the beneficiaries for their commitment and dedication during their period of contribution, which had made it possible for them to take home the end-of-service pension from the Teacher’s Fund.
Presentation
Mr Acheampong was speaking at a presentation ceremony where the five pensioners were presented with their pension packages being their contributions’ returns from the Teacher’s Fund at the GNAT Hall in Kumasi.
The Teacher’s Fund is a retirement supplement scheme for GNAT, established by a Trust Deed in May 1998. The fund started with a monthly deduction of GH¢0.10 as basic contributions from the salary of GNAT members through a check-off system.
The basic contribution was first increased to GH¢0.50 in February 2002 and GH¢2.50 (25,000) in October 2004 and in February 2008, the basic contribution was further increased to GH¢5 and then to GH¢10 in January 2011.
Effective March 2015, the basic contribution was increased from GH¢200 to GH¢30.
Mr Acheampong assured teachers in the country that GNAT would put in place prudent measures that stood the chance of improving their lives, as well as professional competence.
The General Manager of the fund, Mr Foster Buabeng, said the asset of the fund as of September stood at GH¢720 million, adding that it was expected to hit one billion Ghana cedis by next year.
Investment
He mentioned other investment made from the fund as the Credit Mall, TF Financial Services Ltd, TF properties, among other investment initiatives, all geared towards increasing returns of members’ contributions.
The GM was upbeat that the fund would continue to increase investments of its contributors so that the returns would be appreciable by the time they retired.
A spokesperson for the recipients, Mr John Amamu, commended GNAT and administrators of the fund for the packages which had come to improve their pension benefits.
He appealed to teachers in active service to make it a point to increase their contributions beyond the normal contributions so that they could benefit tremendously from the scheme after retirement.