Deputy Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Bright Wereko-Brobbey, has said beneficiaries of the Nation Builders’ Corps (NABCo) should be encouraged to pay the mandatory social security contributions.

The deputy minister who made the suggestion without the assurance that government will pay for graduates who will be recruited under the new job creation initiative further advised the beneficiaries to pay taxes.

Per the Social Security Act 766, employers are supposed to make the contributions on behalf of their employees by deducting 5.5% of the worker’s salary every month, add 13% to that amount and pay it to the Social Security and Insurance Trust (SSNIT).

Addressing the issue on the Citi Breakfast Show on Wednesday, Mr. Wereko-Brobbey advised the prospective NABCO beneficiaries to pay their social security contributions and taxes when they are recruited.

On the taxes, Wereko-Brobbey was unable to state whether it would be deducted from the GHc700 stipend or from elsewhere.

“It is one of the first things that I will personally encourage that out of the money they are going to get, they should pay their taxes, they should pay their social security, and then government will top it up for them. At the end of the day when they get substantive jobs they can continue with it there,” Mr. Wereko-Brobbey added in the interview.

When probed further by the host of the show, Bernard Avle, Mr Wereko-Brobbey insisted that it will be in the interest of the beneficiaries to pay the SSNIT contributions.

“It is even in their own interest,” he added.

The Deputy Minister eventually said:

“They [beneficiaries] will pay their social security. It is money they are earning and the concept of taxation is that anything you earn, you have to pay taxes on it. What I can speak to is that any money you earn you will pay taxes on it. I am not a finance person but this concept is what I was made to know when I started work.”