Willingness Of Poultry Agribusiness Workers To Participate In The Informal Voluntary Pension Scheme In The Kumasi Metropolis Of The Ashanti Region In Ghana

ABSTRACT

Pension contributions address old age income, insecurity and vulnerability and also improve the standard of living. It is the only investment that qualifies an individual to enjoy regular income, and other benefits till death, after contributing for a minimum number of years. This thesis therefore assessed poultry agribusiness workers’ perception, knowledge and attitude towards informal voluntary pension. It also assessed the factors that influence a poultry workers’ choice, willingness to pay and the amount the workers are willing to pay for pension. The study further assessed the old age challenges and benefits they anticipate after retirement. Lastly, the study identified the constraints to the development of the pension scheme for the agribusiness poultry workers. The study employed simple descriptive statistics, contingent valuation method, Logit and Tobit and Multinomial logit models in analyzing the factors that influence poultry agribusiness workers’ willingness to pay, and willingness to pay amount as well as a choice of an informal voluntary pension scheme respectively. Kendall’s Coefficient of Concordance was used in ranking the constraints to the development of informal voluntary pension schemes in the study area. The results of the survey showed that majority (99%) of the respondents had knowledge about pension scheme. The respondents had a positive (0.461) perception about pension schemes. The majority (99.50%) of the respondents were willing to pay GHS0.50 daily for an informal voluntary pension. Empirical estimates from the models applied showed that education, marital status, household size, off-farm income, investment, belonging to a pension scheme, and trust, access to credit statistically influenced willingness to pay for the informal voluntary pension. The study showed that the three most pressing perceived constraints to the development of informal voluntary pension scheme from the poultry agribusiness workers perspective are complicated paper works, low benefit, and low knowledge of the pension scheme while the pension providers face constraints such as high operating cost, no protection against inflation and ineffective information systems. The study recommended that Government policy aimed at providing credits to poultry agribusiness workers would enhance their choices of the informal voluntary pension scheme. Macroeconomic policies aimed at reducing inflation and subsidization of the operational cost of informal voluntary pension providers would have a positive impact on pension uptake by the poultry agribusiness workers in the study area; however, providers should improve pension benefits and also reduce paperwork for poultry subsector workers in the study area. Social assistance programmes in the form of subsidies through means testing for larger household sizes, married couples with a high number of dependence will reverse the negative influence on the amount poultry subsector workers are willing to pay for informal voluntary pension schemes.