Abstract:
Workers in the informal economy have been identified to be at a higher risk of experiencing
poverty as they growth old in developing countries. Due to their attitudes to saving, planning
for old age and eroding family support. Well-designed social security programmes can help
reduce both the risk by building resilience to shocks – safety nets. Although these exist there
are still some challenges considering the rate of enrolment unto the formal social security
available.
Increasingly it is being regarded as important for the society to consider the importance of a
universal formal Social Security. However this has been wrought with many challenges for
many developing countries especially. To reduce the incidence of poverty and with the
eroding family support, it has become necessary for countries to be concerned about how
individuals are planning towards retirement in their old age or in the event that there is
stoppage of work abruptly.
In this thesis, I describe the trends in Social Security in Accra with my respondents for the
study chosen from Madina.
The objectives of the study were to; to find out how sources of knowledge about the SSNIT
Informal Sector Fund (SISF) affected attitudes, study the nature of informal Social Security
arrangements that Informal Economy workers participate in, determine how pricing, benefits,
services and other factors affects the workers choice of social security systems available, and
make recommendations that will help increase awareness in the informal economy about
social security.
The results show that although there are Social Security Systems available to the Workers in
the Informal Economy, subscription was low.
