Poor salaries will undermine new pension-Prof Nukunya (Page 14) November 10, 2008

Story: Michael Donkor
A former Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof G.K. Nukunya, has observed that the proposed three-tier pension scheme will be of no benefit if salaries are not adjusted to reflect the realities on the ground.
He said basic salaries were too low, resulting in low pensions, and called for the situation to be looked at critically.
Prof Nukunya, who is also a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, made the observation when he delivered a lecture as part of the activities marking the 60th anniversary of the University of Ghana, Legon, in Accra last Thursday.
He said retirement was a situation that brought considerable changes into the life of an individual, saying that it resulted, among others, in a reduction in income, loss of influence and power, loneliness, boredom and sometimes homelessness.
He said of these, the reduction in income appeared to be the most critical because it tended to increase the effects of the other conditions.
Prof Nukunya said despite some improvement in the income levels of university employees in recent years, the basic structure still left much to be desired, as in most cases the increases were in allowances, which were not added when pensions were calculated.
He said the basic pay of the highest paid university employee was about GH¢800 a month for a full professor and added that full professors were few, forming less than one per cent of the workforce.
Prof Nukunya said the bulk of the employees earned less than GH¢250 a month, while the lowest got less than GH¢100 a month.
He said it was, therefore, not surprising that the highest monthly pension for a university employee was just over GH¢400 and the lowest GH¢20, adding that as with the basic salary, the majority of the pensioners fell somewhere between the two extremes.
He said no one could live comfortably solely on this pension, adding that those forced to do so risked a big reduction in their standard of living.
Prof Nukunya, therefore, suggested that employees should be educated on how to prepare for retirement to avoid situations that could lead them to miserable lives when they were on retirement.