TITLE:
The Effect of Financial Literacy on Participation in the Informal Sector Personal Pension Scheme in Accra, Ghana
AUTHORS:
Emmanuel Osei Asiamah
KEYWORDS:
Financial Literacy, Informal Sector, Participation, Personal Pension Scheme
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.11 No.1,
January
20,
2023
ABSTRACT: The informal sector contributes significantly to the Ghanaian economy. It contributes for more than 71.3 percent to employment creation and 70
percent to GDP in Ghana. However, the sector is the least covered in any form
of pension. In addressing this, the government of Ghana introduced the Informal
Sector Personal Pension Scheme in 2008 (Act 766), but after more a decade of
its introduction, participation of the informal sector workers in the scheme is
significantly low and the factors that will enhance increased participation
have received little attention. This study sets out to assess the financial literacy of the informal sector workers and investigate
whether financial literacy affects the
participation of the informal sector
workers in the personal pension scheme.
This study used a descriptive survey design. Self- administered questionnaires were used to collect primary data of which 420 informal sector workers were sampled and used in the study. The
Binary Logit Model was used to determine the probability of the informal sector
workers to participate in the personal pension scheme given financial literacy.
The study found that financial literacy among the informal sector workers is
extremely low. It, was however, revealed that there
is significant relationship between financial literacy and participation of the
informal sector workers in the personal pension scheme. The policy implications proposed in the study were that the government, the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA),
and Corporate Trustees should pay particular attention to financial literacy
and provide financial literacy education and training for the informal sector
workers.