Bussiness
Improving Pension Education: SSNIT launches Supplementary Readers Manual for basic schools
The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has collaborated with the Ghana Education Service (GES) to launch the supplementary readers manual on social security for Junior and Senior High Schools (JHS/SHS).
The Supplementary Readers and Teachers’ Manual on Social Security for students and teachers is meant to deepen students’ awareness of social security issues.
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) was a major partner in the development of the manual.
Producing the manual involved breaking down the Pensions Act 2014, as amended to Act 883 into simple concepts for easy understanding.
The launch which was under the theme “Empowering the Youth with Knowledge in Social Security – Preparing For The Future,” was held at the Kumasi Anglican Senior High School in Kumasi.
Director-General of SSNIT, Dr John Ofori-Tenkorang, observed that in spite of the benefits the SSNIT Scheme provides, membership is relatively low which he attributed to a general lack of understanding about social security, the laws governing it and the value it provides.
He therefore said the manual would enable students to insist on their right to social security as potential workers or discharge well their responsibilities as future employers.
Dr Ofori-Tenkorang is hopeful that the initiative would equip the young ones with the requisite knowledge and information needed to achieve SSNIT’s goal of achieving social protection for all workers in Ghana.
Deputy Minister for Education, Rev. Dr John Ntim Fordjour, said the project was to raise the young learners as ambassadors who appreciated the essence of SSNIT contribution for a secured and comfortable future.
The Deputy Minister revealed that out of 11 million working population in Ghana, only 1.7 million were contributing to SSNIT, adding that the 227,000 beneficiaries currently on the monthly payroll of SSNIT could have been more if more workers had contributed to SSNIT during their active work period.
“As financial literacy is a key element in our standard-based and common core curricula, we hope to raise nearly 10 million learners in pre-tertiary schools with knowledge and values that are aligned to the key priorities of national development,” he added.
He acknowledged that introducing social security as part of the new Common Core Curriculum for schools is very significant for today’s education and the future of the scheme.
Rev Dr Ntim Fordjour also appealed to SSNIT to create similar supplementary readers for the early grades.
Meanwhile, Ashanti Regional Director for GES, Mary Owusu Afriyie, believes the initiative would equip the young ones with the knowledge on social security to adequately prepare them for retirement.
She encouraged all students and teachers to take full advantage of the initiative to upgrade themselves for a better future.
Source: www.myjoyonline.com
Bussiness
Ghana’s GDP shows economy is fast recovering despite DDEP – Finance Ministry
Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) indicates a rapid economic recovery despite global challenges and ongoing debt restructuring, according to the Ministry of Finance (MoF).
The Ministry in a statement today indicated that latest data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), cumulative economic growth for the second quarter (Q2) of 2024 reached 6.9%, a notable increase from the 4.7% recorded in the first quarter of 2024.
The MoF statement further noted that, “The economy’s robust recovery is in response to the macroeconomic stability and growth interventions that government is pursuing under our IMF-supported Post Covid-19 Programme for Economic Growth (PC-PEG).”
According to them, the overall real GDP growth for the first half of 2024 rebounded strongly, with year-on-year GDP growth averaging 5.8% for the period, significantly higher than the 2.9% recorded in the same period in 2023.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
Read full statement below
Bussiness
Facebook, Youtube, online trading companies must be taxed – Deputy Finance Minister
The Deputy Finance Minister Dr Alex Ampaabeng, has proposed that online trading companies should be taxed to bolster the economy.
He noted that these companies, both local and international, generate significant revenue from their Ghanaian clients, which underscores the necessity for taxation.
In an interview with Bernard Avle on Channel One TV’s The Point of View, Dr Ampaabeng pointed out various potential revenue sources for Ghana, including online businesses and content creation companies.
He questioned why other national companies operating in Ghana are taxed, but social media platforms like Youtube and Facebook, which run numerous advertisements, are not included in the Ghanaian tax system.
According to him, these social media companies earn profits from the advertisements they display, and online trading companies also generate income from the sale of their products and services.
He mentioned online trading companies such as Jiji, Jumia, and Tonaton, which he believes surpass all physical marketplaces in Ghana in size.
According to him, “I can’t think of a country which has not gotten a digital service tax system of some sort, so Ghana is long overdue. Just to make an example so that people will appreciate where I’m coming from. Go to Youtube and play a video, within one or two minutes, you are going to watch about two, or three adverts.”
“What it tells you is that Facebook or Youtube is making profits right here in Ghana. Go to your Facebook account, and you are going to see a number of adverts on your right, left. What it is telling you is that Facebook is making profits right here in Ghana and not being taxed. Meanwhile, there are companies operating in Ghana, for jurisdiction reasons, of course, that are being taxed,” he said.
The Deputy Minister added that “So then, it comes to the question of the application of our tax laws. Revenues generated in Ghana are subject to taxes. We have Facebook, TikTok and all those players, these are digital platform owners.”
He stressed, “Then we have the digital or market players, here we are talking about individuals who are using the digital platforms. We have Jiji, Jumia, Tonaton, these combined, are bigger than all physical marketplaces in Ghana. And it tells you the volume of transactions, that are going on there.”
He expressed his hope that individuals earning online profits from Ghanaian residents would be taxed.
“There are conversations ongoing, I wouldn’t want to pre-empt anything, maybe in the future, it might not be anytime soon, what I would like to see, is a Ghana where people who are earning all forms of profits in the country are subject to taxes. People who are trading online to Ghanaian residents, people who are generating revenue from Ghana are allowed to pay taxes,” he noted.
Additionally, he proposed a collaboration with the government to curb cybercrime by registering and verifying these online trading companies.
“We can have a system where the government engages these operators, so individuals will submit their Ghana Card and are registered and verified,”he concluded.
Source: Citinewsroom.com
