The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) is targeting 2.8 million active members by 2028 as part of measures to expand pension coverage and strengthen the long-term sustainability of the national pension scheme.
The Director-General of SSNIT, Kwesi Afreh Biney, disclosed this at a stakeholder engagement with organised labour in Accra Tuesday.
The engagement was intended to update labour on the performance and direction of SSNIT, while providing an opportunity for stakeholders to identify areas where SSNIT could improve.
The event brought together some members of the board of trustees of SSNIT, management and staff of both SSNIT and the Ghana Federation of Labour and the Trades Union Congress, Ghana (TUC).
In attendance were the Chairman of the SSNIT Board of Trustees, Nana Ansah Sasraku III; the Chief of Bruku Traditional Area and member of the SSNIT Board, Nana Dr Adu Sarkodee; the National Chairman of TUC, Bernard Owusu; the Deputy Secretary-General of TUC, Dr Kwabena Nyarko Otoo; the Deputy Secretary-General, the Ghana Federation of Labour, Kenneth Koomson, and SSNIT Public Affairs Manager, Lord Koramoa.
Making a presentation on "SSNIT's Strategic Priorities and Key Initiatives", Mr Biney said active membership had increased to 2,179,295 as of the end of last month, from about 820,000 in 1991, with the Trust’s three-year corporate strategy targeting an average addition of 300,000 members annually to reach approximately 2.8 million by 2028.
The Director-General of SSNIT identified the informal sector as a key area for expanding coverage, stating that more than 80 per cent of the country’s workforce operates in that sector.
He said changes in the world of work, including digital employment, self-employment, entrepreneurship, remote work and greater labour mobility, required SSNIT to adopt new approaches to reaching and serving workers.
“Currently, we have 2.17 million plus active members as at the end of July. If you take a look at our corporate strategy for the next three years, the goal is to increase membership on average by 300,000 each year. So, by 2028, the goal is to have about 2.8 million active members,” he said.
Asset growth
Mr Biney also announced a significant growth in SSNIT’s Assets Under Management (AUM), which rose from GH¢28.47 billion at the end of 2025 to GH¢35.4 billion by the end of June this year.
He said equities accounted for GH¢21 billion, representing 59 per cent of the investment portfolio, while fixed income accounted for 22 per cent, real estate 18 per cent and alternative investments about 1.2 per cent.
The director-general said SSNIT was also expanding access to its services through digital platforms and partnerships with financial institutions.
He stated that the Trust introduced a 24-hour virtual branch in December 2025 and had established 15 co-location points at branches of Ecobank PLC, the Fidelity Bank, GCB Bank PLC and the Consolidated Bank Ghana.
The initiative, he said, was expected to expand to 100 locations by the end of next year, allowing members in underserved areas to access SSNIT services without travelling long distances to SSNIT offices.
Sustainability
On the sustainability of the pension scheme, Mr Biney said the latest actuarial valuation showed an improvement compared with the previous assessment.
He said while the projections indicated potential pressure on the scheme from 2055 under certain assumptions, SSNIT’s actual membership growth of about eight per cent over the past two years was above the five per cent growth assumption used in the assessment.
Mr Biney said ensuring full compliance with contribution payments, together with continued membership growth, would be critical to keeping the scheme sustainable well beyond 2073.
The director-general said SSNIT was, therefore, focused on expanding coverage, improving service delivery and making membership more valuable to workers, including through partnerships with more than 49 companies offering discounts and other benefits to members and pensioners.
“At 100 per cent collection of what we are supposed to collect, per the analysis, the fund would go past the next 50 years without any major changes being required to the scheme,” he said.
Mr Biney added: “Consistently, in the last two years, we've been growing in excess of the five per cent at eight per cent, and the contributions connection, as well, has been much higher.”
SSNIT-Organised Labour partnership
The chairman of the SSNIT board of trustees called for a stronger partnership among SSNIT, organised labour, the government, employers and workers to protect the long-term future of Ghana’s pension system.
Participants
Nana Ansah Sasraku said the meeting should go beyond a routine stakeholder engagement and become a platform for frank dialogue on how to secure the future of Ghanaian workers.
He said all stakeholders shared the responsibility to ensure that workers could retire with dignity, security and confidence, stressing that SSNIT must remain strong, relevant and sustainable for future generations.
The board chairman said the changing nature of work presented a major challenge to traditional pension arrangements.
He cited software developers working remotely for foreign companies, Uber drivers, graphic designers, social media professionals, consultants, online traders, farmers, artisans, market women and small business owners as examples of workers who contributed to the economy but may remain outside formal pension coverage.
Nana Ansah Sasraku, therefore, called for a thoughtful review of the pension system to ensure that it adequately protected all workers in the evolving labour market.
He cautioned, however, that reforms must not be undertaken recklessly, but through collaboration and with the long-term interests of workers and their families at the centre.
“Social security is not sustained by institutions alone. It is sustained by trust.
Workers must trust that their contributions are secure, employers must understand and fulfil their obligations and pensioners must have confidence that the scheme will be there for them,” he said.
