The Commissioner of Insurance of the National Insurance Commission, Dr. Justice Yaw Ofori has urged Ghanaians to take keen interest in Annuities in insurance policies.
Annuities is a financial instrument issued and backed by an Insurance company that provides guaranteed monthly income payments for the life of the contracts regardless of the market conditions.
According to him, most annuity arrangements provide a way to earn while still on retirement and there is therefore the need to help sustain a decent lifestyle and mitigate the impact of the rising costs of living that characterizes retirement.
He added, the development of the annuities product has been a part of efforts of the NIC to harness the synergies from the pensions market and the Commission started taking these steps having in mind the lump sums from tiers 2 and 3 available to those eligible to retire under the New Pensions Systems.
Speaking to the media at an Engagement with Annuities Advocates in collaboration with GIZ, Dr. Justice Yaw Ofori, said members of the insuring public particularly those approaching their retirement will begin to appreciate their contributions into the Tiers 2 and 3 upon their accumulated lump sum to enable them purchase a life annuity product to be managed by licensed insurance companies.
He added that NIC had realized that a lot of people after retirement found it difficult to survive after they have received their lump sums from the tier 2 pension scheme and are therefore forced to rely on just the monthly payments from their social security contributions which mostly requires some backing from one’s own financial arrangement such as annuities.
“Before you are allowed to do so, you have to undergo proper screening for us to be convinced that people’s future being put in your hands will be well protected,” he assured.
Planning towards retirement
“Everything you do in your earlier years as a creative, you get a lot of engagements but as you grow older, the engagements reduce to a point where you may do only one production in a year. Are you going to live on that one production?
“This is why it is necessary for all of us to see this as something that has come at a good point in time for us to prepare our future,” he said.
Veteran Actor, David Dontoh, who was part of the advocates selected to lead the campaign on annuities has urged people in the creative industry to take advantage of this product to save for a ‘rainy day’.
Saddick Adams also known as Sports Obama (Media Personality} also for his part said although annuities were very popular in the developed countries, the situation was different in this part of the world.
Some of the Annuities Advocates who took part in the engagement included David Dontor (Veteran Actor), Gyedu-Blay Ambolley (Veteran Musician, Nana Yaa Konadu (Media Personality) and Saddick Adams also known as Sports Obama (Media Personality)