Business News of Thursday, 8 July 2021
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2021-07-08Ecobank presents GH¢28.8 million dividends to SSNIT for 2020
The Trust’s investments in banks stood at GH¢1.76 billion as of December 2020
• Ecobank has presented GH¢28.8 million dividends to SSNIT for the 2020 year despite the impact of COVID-19 on banks
• The Trust’s investments in banks stood at GH¢1.76 billion as of December 2020
• With 16.21% shares, SSNIT is the second-largest shareholder in Ecobank Ghana
Ecobank Ghana has presented a
Read full articledividend of Gh¢28.8 million for the year 2020 to the Management of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) at the Pension House in Accra.
According to the SSNIT, this represents an increase of 83% over the 2019 dividend payment of GH¢15.7 million.
Presenting the dividend, the Managing Director of Ecobank Ghana, Daniel Sackey mentioned that, even though the Bank of Ghana had directed that the dividend should not be paid for the 2020 financial year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its possible impact on the balance sheets of banks, it believes that the bank performed well due to engagements with the regulators.
“Considering the strong performance of the bank and following further engagements with the Regulator, we were given the go-ahead to pay dividends to our shareholders,” he explained.
Daniel Sackey further commented that being one of the key investment vehicles of SSNIT, which is the second-largest shareholder after Ecobank’s parent company, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, it was proper that on an annual basis, the Bank comes to render accounts to the investor.
He indicated that in 20221, Ecobank was quite proud and happy to have returned a significant amount of dividend to SSNIT.
Receiving the dividend, the Director-General of SSNIT, Dr. John Ofori-Tenkorang, thanked the Board, Management and staff of Ecobank for ensuring the Trust’s investment yielded returns despite the challenging times occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said, “we wished the dividend was more because we have huge monthly pensions payments we are obliged to make. Currently, we are paying about GH¢250 million to pensioners monthly. We, therefore, anticipate higher returns for the current year considering the improvement in the economy."
Dr Ofori-Tenkorang explained, "SSNIT Scheme relies largely on contributions collected and investment returns to pay benefits. In running the Scheme, we rely on the returns from investments that we have in investee companies to meet our obligations.”
He assured that the Trust is committed to investing prudently and ensuring workers funds are safe.
“Management of the Trust is committed to restructuring existing investments and investing in low risk but high yielding investment assets. Based on the sound policies adopted, we are confident that in the coming years, a lot more investee companies will be posting some very good returns."
Also commenting on the presentation, the Deputy Director-General, Investments and Development, SSNIT, Kofi Osafo Maafo, lauded the Ecobank for their strong performance, adding that, all the key indicators were showing a positive trend including a solid capital adequacy ratio of 20%.
The Trust’s investments in banks stood at GH¢1.76 billion as of December 2020. This constitutes 16.6% of the total investment portfolio of the Scheme.
With 16.21% shares, SSNIT is the second-largest shareholder in Ecobank Ghana.
About SSNIT
The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) is a statutory public Trust charged under the National Pensions Act, 2008 Act 766 with the administration of Ghana’s Basic National Social Security Scheme. As the operator of the First Tier of the Three-Tier Pension Scheme, it replaces part of lost income of workers in Ghana due to Old Age, Invalidity or Death of a member where lump sum payment is made to dependents. It also pays an Emigration benefit to a non-Ghanaian member who is leaving Ghana permanently.
The SSNIT Pension Scheme has a registered membership of over 1.6 active million contributors. In June 2021, the Trust paid a total of over GH¢250 million to some 232,924 pensioners.
You can nominate personalities and organisations for the GhanaWeb Excellence Awards via this link.
Nomination Form
https://docs.google.com
