MAIDEN ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE HSOPS
October 19, 2022
The Health Sector Occupational Pension Scheme (HSOPS) on Wednesday, 19th October 2022, organized its first Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the Labadi Beach Hotel, Accra which was also live-streamed on Zoom and other social media platforms.
Present at the meeting was Honourable Wereko Brobbey, the Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations; Honourable Tina Gifty Naa Ayeley Mensah, the Deputy Minister of Health; Dr. Patrick Kuma Aboakye, the Director General of the Ghana Health Service and representatives of the major stakeholders of the Scheme.
The theme which was “Sustaining the Growth of Pension Funds: The Role of Trustees” sought to give an account of the performance of the Scheme for the year 2021 and provide a platform for stakeholder engagement.
The Minister of Employment and Labour Relations in a speech read by Hon. Wereko Brobbey commended the HSOPS for organizing the meeting. “The Scheme should have offices in all regions so that members can have easy access to the services of the Scheme”, he added.
The Minister of Health in a statement read by Honourable Tina Gifty Naa Ayeley Mensah advised members of the Scheme on the importance of saving for the future with a quote from Peter Lynch which stated that, “in the long run, it is not just how much money you make that will determine your future prosperity. It is how much of that money you put to work by saving it and investing it.”
Dr. Patrick Kuma Aboakye expressed his commitment to ensuring that his over 100,000 employees were all on-boarded and fully enrolled in the Scheme.
The major service providers of the Scheme: Enterprise Trustees Limited – Scheme Administrator, Delta Capital Limited – Fund Manager, Bora Capital – Fund Manager and Cal Bank PLC – Custodian, expressed their gratitude to the Board of the HSOPS for electing them to be part of the Scheme. They also pledged their continuous diligence in ensuring that the expectations of the Board of Trustees for the Scheme are met.
According to Dr. Derek Amoateng, the Board Chairman of the HSOPS, the Scheme which had a humble beginning in 2012 with an Asset under Management (AUM) of GH₡2,040 had grown to over GH₡ 2.1 billion at the end of 2021. He also disclosed that the Scheme was in the process of opening a branch in Kumasi by the first week of November 2022.
Speaking on some of the operational challenges faced by the Scheme during the year under review, the Board Chairman mentioned delays in the transfer of monthly member contributions to the Scheme by the Controller & Accountant-General's Department (CAGD). He however added that all the 2021 arrears had subsequently been paid.
Mr. Felix Hazel on behalf of KHN Chartered Accountants and Financial Advisors: the Auditor of the HSOPS for the year under review presented an independent scheme audited report to the members. “In our opinion, the accompanying Financial Statements give a true and fair view of the financial transactions of the Scheme for the year ended 31st December 2021….”, he said.
During the business session of the meeting, Mr. Kofi Asomaning-Sakyi: a representative from ETL presented the HSOPS 2021 annual fact sheet. He reported that the unit price for the Scheme was 177.96 whiles membership was 174,959 in the year ended 2021. He also announced that the Scheme had various avenues which could be used by members to access information such as their physical offices, the USSD- *714*333#, the Schemes website- www.hsopsghana.com and the HSOPS mobile App which was to be launched soon.
Members in attendance both physically and virtually had an opportunity to ask questions which were addressed by the Board members.
