The assurance by the Director-General of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) that the pension reform exercise will deliver better value to pensioners and the increase in the producer price of cocoa are some of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Tuesday.
The Graphic reports that the Director-General of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Dr. John Ofori-Tenkorang, has assured workers that the pension reform exercise will deliver better value to pensioners than the old law gave them.
“Pensioners have not been made worse off under the three-tier pension scheme. In fact, the monthly pension paid under Act 766 is better than the residual pension paid under PNDCL 247,” he said.
Dr. Ofori-Tenkorang said yesterday that although the implementation of the final lap of the reform had experienced some “transitional peculiarities that may adversely affect some individuals”, it should not be misconstrued that the National Pensions Act, 2008 (Act 766) made workers and retirees worse off.
He said the increase in the monthly pension paid to retirees, the shortening of the minimum period one should contribute to enjoy pensions from 20 to 15 years and the improvement in the lifetime benefits paid to pensioners and their survivors from 72 to 75 years were some of the enhanced benefits in Act 766 that were absent in PNDCL 247.
He also explained that the government had committed to ensuring that any worker who received lower pensions under Act 766 than he/she would have received under PNDCL 247 during the transitional period was paid the deficit amount.
The newspaper says that the Ghana Cocoa, Coffee and Sheanut Farmers Association (COCOSHE), the umbrella body of tree crop farmers in the country, has welcomed the increase in the producer price of cocoa from GH¢515 to GH¢660 for a bag of 64kg cocoa.
It said the 28.2 percent hike announced by the government demonstrated a commitment towards improving the livelihood of cocoa farmers.
The farmers said they had also heaved a sigh of relief as the government had rolled out the much-talked about Living Income Differential (LID) price which gave cocoa farmers $400 more per tonne of cocoa.
A statement signed by the National President of the association, who doubles as the National Chief Farmer, Alhaji Alhassan Bukari, said: “Again, we have not lost sight of the various on-going Productivity Enhancement Programme (PEP) that the government and Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) are implementing to support farmers to increase yields.”
The Graphic also says that the government has reiterated its commitment to the teacher licensure examination, saying it is a sure way to enhance standards and elevate the dignity of the teaching profession.
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, said the licensure examination was a credible means of achieving that and his government remained committed to it.
“If we are to elevate the dignity of the teaching profession, as we must, then it stands to reason that we must guard the gates jealously and ensure that robust standards are met before a person can call himself or herself a teacher and enter the classroom to teach,” he explained.
That, he said, would help teachers acquire skills, knowledge, values and attitudes to meet national and global teaching standards to deliver effectively in schools.
The President said this in a speech read on his behalf at this year’s Ghana Teacher Prize Day in Cape Coast yesterday.
The Times reports that the Ministry of Health has secured financial clearance to employ 3,456 allied health professionals from the end of the year 2020 to 2021.
According to the Registrar of the Allied Health Profession Council, Dr Samuel Yaw Opoku, very soon the Council would open its portal to allow the registration of graduates who were yet to be employed by the government.
Dr. Opoku announced this when he was addressing the induction and oath swearing ceremony for 760 Allied Health Graduates in Kumasi, under the theme; “The role of the Allied Health Professional during and post COVID-19.”
He said the theme for the occasion was timely considering the various roles allied health professionals have played in the country’s fight against the COVID-19 virus, which has claimed the lives of some people.
The newspaper says that Odikro of Gomoa Buduburam in the Gomoa East District of the Central Region, Nana Kojo Essel, has stated that the running mate for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, can become Ghana’s first female president.
According to the traditional ruler, who is looking forward to seeing a female occupy such position in the near future, said Prof. Opoku-Agyemang was the best possible person, from all indications.
Against this conviction, he has encouraged the NDC running mate, not to only consider herself as the first female Vice President of the country, if the NDC wins rather look at the ‘bigger prize of the first female President of Ghana.
Nana Essel made the observation at his palace at Buduburam at the weekend when the NDC vice presidential running mate, Professor Opoku-Agyemang paid a courtesy call on him and his elders, as part of her working visit of the Central Region.
He assured her, a former Minister of Education, of outmost support and assistance from him and his people towards the realisation of political feat especially when she was a daughter of the region.
GIK/APA