East African bloc plans harmonized pension regulation to boost labor mobility
The East African Community (EAC) member states plan to harmonize their pension regulations in order to boost labor mobility across the bloc, an official said on Tuesday.
Nzomo Mutuku, CEO of Kenya’s Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA), told journalists in Nairobi that the EAC Pension Policy, which was approved by the EAC council of ministers, will provide a roadmap to standardize pension rules. EAC member states include Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and South Sudan.
The retirement benefits regulator said that different countries maintain diverse tax systems for the pension sector, hampering the movement of labor as envisaged by the EAC common market protocol. Mutuku said the region is also working jointly to increase the level of pension coverage among the labor force.
He said that Kenya leads in the area of pension coverage with approximately 22 percent of its workforce enrolled in a pension scheme. Mutuku said that the low retirement rate in the EAC is attributed to the large informal sectors that employ the bulk of the region’s working population.
He said that the trading bloc is prioritizing the expansion of the retirement benefits in order to cater for the growing population of elderly citizens.
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