SSNIT captures more than 80% of contributors onto biometric system
More than 80 per cent of the 1.3 million active contributors of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) have been successfully captured onto its new biometric system, Mr Ernest Thompson, the Director General of SSNIT, has said.
He said SSNIT’s biometric registration exercise had been one of such exercises in the country done with less flaws and extremely successful, surpassing its new registration target.
Mr Thompson, who was speaking at the opening of this year’s operations conference at Elmina on Wednesday, said the exercise had paved the way for the introduction of a new numbering structure for employers and establishments who transacted business with the Trust.
The four-day conference, which is on the theme: “Consolidating Technology to Maximise Operational Efficiency for Superior Customer Service,” is being attended by departmental managers as well as area and branch managers of the Trust.
It is aimed at reviewing the current strategies of SSNIT to resolve prevailing data challenges and to improve operational processes to enhance customer satisfaction as well as refocusing on compliance enforcement activities.
He said the successful conduct of the biometric exercise had proved that SSNIT was a formidable institution which could deliver efficiently when given the needed support.
“Currently, a lot of advances have been done as to whether SSNIT can take over some of the biometric exercises being undertaken,” he said.
SSNIT began a nationwide biometric exercise in May 2014 to provide multiple service delivery channels, reduce the number of enrolment cycle time drastically, eliminate multiple member registration through a highly secured biometric system, reduce fraud and facilitate easy identity verification.
Mr Thompson said SSNIT viewed increased use of technology as the basis of productivity and as such had moved from the manual system of work to a fully automated system by automating its departments.
He said for the first time in the history of the Trust, its record data base had been digitised while efforts were far advanced to encrypt and ensure maximum security of the national data-base.
Mr Thompson said as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, the Trust was undertaking four main investment projects including the construction of police community posts, training complex for the Trades Union Congress, children’s library and a court complex.
He said as part of the investment programme of the Trust for 2017, it would convert the Rawlings Park into a multi-purpose high-rise modern market and a car park complex.
Mr Adam Sulley, the Deputy Director General in charge of Operations and Benefits, said SSNIT remained committed to consolidating the current technology to ensure migrational efficiency and to attain superior customer satisfaction.
He said employers were able to pay their contributions through banks using electronic transfers, use of the biometric terminal and the web portal which had transformed the way SSNIT transacted business with its customers.
Dr Prosper Ayisah, the Takoradi Area Manager, said the Operations Business Suite, a technological tool adopted by the Trust to improve service delivery, sought a secured and reliable social security pension administration.
He urged managers and staff of the Trust to tackle the identifiable challenges and devise strategies to forge ahead and work together as a coherent tool to persevere in attaining the vision of transforming the Trust through technology.
Source: GNA