The Africa Center for Retirement Research (ACRR) is calling for the reversal of a recent policy by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to discontinue receiving contributions of members who have reached the retirement age of 60.
The directive to disallow contributions is based on section 70(1) of the Pensions ACT, but in an interview with Citi News, the Executive Director for ACRR, Mashud Abdallah, says SSNIT misinterpreted the law and the implementation of the policy will have dire consequences on the affected members of the scheme.
“We have gotten to a point where to review the mode of pension in this country, we need to consider a model that predates the fix of rate increment in a manner that high monthly pension earners receive a moderately lower fixed rate as compared to low monthly pension earners,” Mashud Abdallah explained.
In a statement released by ACRR, the think tank said, the directive did not detail the actuarial basis of the policy nor its social and financial impact on the affected workers.
“The directive did not detail the actuarial basis of the policy nor its social and financial impact on the affected workers or the scheme but simply referenced Section 70(1) of the National Pension Act, 2008, (Act 766),” ACRR said in its statement.
The Pensions Act of 70 (1) explains, “A member of the social security scheme who (a) retires on attaining the compulsory retirement age of sixty years; or (b) retires voluntarily on attaining the age of fifty-five years and has contributed to the social security fund for a period not less than fifteen years in the aggregate or one hundred and eighty months in the aggregate is entitled to a superannuation pension”.
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