SSNIT’s biggest challenge is digital adoption, not technology – DG
The Director-General of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Kwasi Afreh Biney, has identified low adoption of digital services by customers as the institution’s biggest challenge, despite significant investments in technology to improve service delivery.
Speaking on the Business Edition of Joy News’ PM Express on Thursday, Mr. Biney said SSNIT has made substantial progress in automating its operations, resulting in faster pension processing times and improved efficiency.
According to him, pension claims that previously took much longer to process can now be completed within an average of seven days, provided all required documentation has been submitted.
“So let’s say you’ve gone on pension now, all your documents are right and you’ve submitted them to us. On average, it now takes us seven days to process your request and place you on the pension payroll because we still need to conduct investigations, retrieve files and complete the necessary validations,” he explained.
Mr. Biney attributed the improvement to SSNIT’s ongoing digital transformation efforts, which have significantly reduced manual processes across the organisation.
However, he stressed that the success of such investments depends largely on customers’ willingness to embrace the available digital platforms.
“Automation has really helped, but one of the things that I believe we need to work on is the mindset shift regarding the use of our digital channels,” he said.
He noted that many institutions focus heavily on investing in technology but often overlook the importance of driving user adoption.
“If you’ve invested in technology but you haven’t gotten people to accept it and use it, you will not get the benefits that you seek,” he stated.
To address the challenge, Mr. Biney disclosed that SSNIT has established a dedicated department responsible for enhancing digital engagement, gathering customer feedback and improving user experience across its digital platforms.
“That is why we have set up a department whose core responsibility is to focus on our digital channels, encourage people to use them, gather feedback and ensure that we continuously improve the platforms to make them easier and more convenient to use,” he explained.
He added that SSNIT has adopted a deliberate strategy to make digital channels the preferred mode of service delivery while maintaining face-to-face interactions as a complementary option.
“We made a conscious decision that we wanted digital to be the default. Once digital becomes the default, we need to educate people on the convenience and efficiency it offers so that physical interactions become complementary to digital service delivery,” he said.
Mr. Biney further argued that public service institutions must adapt to changing consumer behaviour by providing services that align with how people interact in the digital age.
“You wake up in the morning and probably the first thing you pick up is your phone. You may go on WhatsApp or other digital platforms. We must design solutions that reflect the way people live and interact so that we can deliver convenience and better service to the public,” he stated.
The SSNIT Director-General maintained that increasing digital adoption remains central to the organisation’s efforts to improve efficiency, enhance customer experience and provide faster pension services to contributors and pensioners across the country.
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