Is raising the statutory pension age in Ghana not long overdue?

Today, the statutory pension age in Ghana is 60 for both men and women. This seems to have been around since the colonial days handed down to us by our colonial overlords.

Over the years, the 60 maximum has been maintained for government workers in both the civil and public services. Some private companies have also taken after this practice whiles self-employed people can work until they drop dead.

Even though we inherited the same practices from the British, some former British colonies have tweaked those rules somewhat. In Nigeria, for example, government workers go on pension after working for a maximum of 30 years or when they reach 60, whichever comes first. If you start government work in Nigeria at 25, you will be pensioned off at 55! The Ghanaian practice seems more generous.

Pension at 60 may have been fixed in many countries around the world at a time life expectancy was lower than it is now. This was so in Ghana too. It may have been kept like that in our country when the economy stopped expanding to provide jobs for a population that was growing at an even higher rate than the economy. Ghana’s population at independence was some 6 million. Today, it is 30 million.

An ageing population, low birth rates, longer life due to healthy life styles and good medical care, the changing nature of work with less and less physically taxing work and an expansion of the economy are compelling the advanced countries to increase the pension age to even beyond 65. The situation is far from the same in Ghana. With many graduates searching for non-available work, it will seem improper to talk about increasing the pension age and keeping the young out of the job market.

At the same time as the pension age has been fixed for all these years at 60, no age limits are set for political office holders. The constitution provides only a minimum age for the presidency (40) and membership of parliament (21). A person who is 80 can seek to become president of the republic long after he had been pensioned off from the civil and public services. Special provisions are made for the justices of the country’s superior courts. Supreme and Appeal Court Justices may retire at the age of 70 and those of the High Court at 65. (At least one Justice of the current 18-member Supreme Court is 72!)

The strict maintenance of the pension age at 60 has brought about certain anomalies in the system. Because of the porous ways we keep records in Ghana, and the fact that some of the older generation, genuinely, do not know when they were born, some Ghanaians deliberately reduce their ages when they enter government service knowing that they would be pensioned off at 60. They may have a biological age and a “football age”. When the age cut is drastic, you will see people who can barely walk because of old age still in government service. Will you blame them when the president can be 80 and not be retired? Some workers who may be aspiring for a senior position may never attain it before going on pension. Any wonder some may wish to cause the death of a senior and take over the position before retiring with a better pension package?

Today, Ghanaians are often retired at an age when they are at their most experienced. How do you retire a medical officer with years of work-related experience, a good professor, or an experienced accountant at 60? Each of these could be at their productive best at 60!

Some government workplaces have devised work-arounds to take care of this situation. The state universities, for instance, give two-year post retirement contracts to needed lecturers and professors. This is renewable only once which means by the age of 64 they have to go. There are some public services too that allow certain vital office holders to go on beyond 60. But when a government does not like a Chair of the Electoral Commission or a particularly vexatious state auditor who happens to be performing his duties too thoroughly for comfort, it can force the removal of such officers on the basis of their ages. And an executive order to that effect will be signed by a president who is far older than the official being removed on account of age!

Is it not time to review the statutory retirement age in Ghana with the aim of increasing it? An objection to this will be the fact that the economy is not expanding enough to provide jobs for many people and the young may be kept too long outside the job market. Even more important is the increase in the government wage bill that this will necessitate at a time when there are calls on the government to drastically reduce this expenditure which consumes an unhealthy proportion of the national budget.

Notwithstanding these, and other, objections, something must be done especially to address the loss to government of experienced personnel. This calls for a review of Article 191 (1) of the 1992 Constitution and appropriate adjustments in the provisions that make exemptions to this article. The increase need not be to 65. What about raising it to 62 or 63?

And whiles we are at it, why not also fix a maximum age for political office holders? For instance, nobody who is 75 years should be allowed to seek the office of the presidency for a first, or even, a second time. A certain generously set maximum age should also disqualify a person who has passed that age from seeking to be a member of parliament or to hold a ministerial position.

Columnist Stephen Atta Owusu

Author: Dark Faces at Crossroads

Email: [email protected]