SSNIT Biometric Registration Begins May 27

Lawrence Acquaah (back to camera) explaining a point to stakeholders at the seminar

The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) will begin the biometric registration of all its active members from May 27, 2014 to May 2016 to bring more efficiency and transparency into its operations.

As a start-up for the new biometric registration exercise, the Trust has started an educational drive for all employers and other stakeholders to achieve its objective which will eventually benefit employers, employees and pensioners.

The first in the series of seminars to educate employers and stakeholders on the new re-enrollment exercise dubbed, 'Operational Business Suite' kick-started at the SSNIT Guest House in Accra on Tuesday during which employers, especially from the banking institutions and the cocoa industry in the Accra South area attended.

Speaking at the seminar, a member of Operational Business Suite Communication Team, Lawrence Acquaah, who also a compliance officer at the Pension House Branch of SSNIT, said the time has come for SSNIT to improve its operations in the face of the technologically-changing world.

According to him, the new registration exercise will bring operations of SSNIT to the doorsteps of all contributors and for contributors to also immensely benefit from the changes that will come.

He said after the registration exercise, information kiosks, which will be in the form of ATMs would be installed at strategic locations throughout the country where contributors could easily access any information that they want regarding their contributions and benefits.

'With the biometric master card, you can easily view your transaction status, update any information that you want, do general enquiries, print statements of accounts while employers could also use that to check their contributions to the Trust,' he said.

The compliance officer explained that fingerprints, live pictures and signatures will be taken as in any other biometric registration but a special chip would be embedded in the master card that will help a contributor or member access his or her personal information from the information kiosks.

He entreated employers to cooperate with SSNIT officials as they come around institutions and establishments to carry out that exercise.

'We will need the full cooperation of employers in realizing this objective that will help all of us,' he said, adding that consultations with various employers would be done in order to structure the re-registration calendar that will not interrupt unnecessarily with work at workplaces.

He maintained that previous information relating to date of birth of contributors will not be changed in the new systems but old registration numbers would be replaced with new ones.

The Pension House Branch Manager, Emmanuel Lomotey, for his part, asked all employers and employees who may have questions relating to this new shift not to hesitate to contact any SSNIT office for further clarifications.

In attendance at the seminar were the Accra South Area Manager,  Henry Van-Hein Sackey; Public Relations Officer for Accra South, George Yankah and other SSNIT officials from the Accra South area.

By Thomas Fosu Jnr