Two different questions, and most people ask the second while meaning the first.
Ghana pension calculator
Work out what SSNIT and the three tiers take from your salary each month, what your pension right is worth, and what a voluntary Tier 3 contribution actually costs after tax relief.
How SSNIT works out the pension
Not from your final salary. The formula is:
Best 36 months’ average salary × your pension right.
The pension right is a percentage you earn by contributing:
- 37.5% once you have 180 months — 15 years — of contributions
- plus 1.12% for every further year
- capped at 60%, which arrives at 35 years
Below 15 years there is no monthly pension at all. You get your own contributions back as a lump sum, which is worth much less than the pension it replaces.
Going early costs more than people expect
You can take it from 55, and the reduction is permanent — it does not step back up when you turn 60.
| Age you take it | You are paid |
|---|---|
| 55 | 60% of the full pension |
| 56 | 67.5% of the full pension |
| 57 | 75% of the full pension |
| 58 | 82.5% of the full pension |
| 59 | 90% of the full pension |
| 60 | 100% of the full pension |
Retiring at 55 rather than 60 costs you 40% of every monthly payment for the rest of your life.
What the calculator cannot know
It uses today’s basic salary as the best-36-months average, because that is the only figure you can give it. SSNIT will use your real record at retirement.
That makes the answer in today’s money: useful for deciding whether the pension will be enough, useless as a prediction of the cedi figure you will actually receive. Given Ghana’s inflation history, the cedi amount will be much larger and buy rather less.
For your real contribution record, use the SSNIT self-service portal or any branch. That is the only authoritative number.
— SSNIT and pensions, explained — Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3, compared — The tax relief on pension contributions — Private and voluntary pensions — Salary calculator