The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) in Ghana is now hosting the Liaison Office for West Africa, taking over from IPS National Social Insurance Fund (IPS Caisse nationale de prévoyance sociale – IPS CNPS) in Côte d’Ivoire. The opening ceremony of the new Office took place in Accra on 2 October 2023, under the patronage of Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, Ghana’s Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, who expressed his great satisfaction and thanked the ISSA for granting his country this privilege.
“The ISSA thanks Ghana and the SSNIT for hosting the West Africa Liaison Office, which plays an essential role in the promotion and development of social security in the region”, said ISSA Secretary General Marcelo Abi-Ramia Caetano. For his part, the Director General of SSNIT, John Ofori-Tenkorang, underlined SSNIT’s willingness to provide all the material, logistical and human resources necessary for the smooth running of the Liaison Office.
Technical seminar on digitization and social security coverage
The opening ceremony was followed by a technical seminar on digitalization to extend social security coverage in West Africa. The seminar began with a presentation on the role that digitalization and mobile technologies play in West Africa. The presentation, given by David Ebo Adjepon-Yamoah, a computer science specialist and lecturer at Ashesi University, was followed by the experiences of ISSA member institutions from seven countries; Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone.
Following the technical seminar, a meeting of the Liaison Office Steering Committee was held, representing the seven countries present. The Committee decided to schedule a workshop, a technical seminar and a webinar for 2024. Final decisions on the themes, locations and dates of the events will be taken in close consultation with the member institutions and the ISSA General Secretariat.
For more information on developments and trends in social security in Africa, see the ISSA report published at the Regional Social Security Forum for Africa 2023.