Africa Archives - Page 14 of 15 - Pension Policy International

29JulJuly 29, 2019

Extending Pension Coverage to the Informal Sector in Africa

By Melis Guven & Ernesto Brodersohn The coverage of pension systems in the Africa region is limited to the small segment of the population in the formal sector. Coverage is thin partly because traditional contributory pension schemes are not responding to the needs of the informal sector. As a result, a large share of the region’s adult population has no access to contributory pension schemes during their working lives. This means they will not be eligible for a pension....

July 29, 2019

Articles, Labor Market, Operation, Pension design2019, Africa, Coverage, Financial Inclusion, Technology

23JulJuly 23, 2019

Zambia. Government proposes to hike NAPSA contributions, abolishes private pension schemes

The PF Government has proposed to increase pension contributions to the National Pensions Scheme Authority from the current 5% to 10%. Currently, the employer and the employee contribute 10% of their gross monthly earnings to NAPSA, a mandatory pension scheme. According to a proposal from the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, their monthly contributions will rise to 10% employer and 10% employee. The proposal also seeks to limit the pension schemes allowed to exist in Zambia to have...

July 23, 2019

News, Slider2019, Africa

19JulJuly 19, 2019

Risk-aversion among pension schemes a recipe for poverty

It is a known fact that pension funds, in their quest to deliver returns that will maintain pre-retirement standard of living for retirees, are faced with trilemma in their asset allocation—namely profitability, liquidity and security. Profitability is all about investing to achieve highest returns, liquidity rotates around the ability to answer to liabilities as at and when they fall due and security entails capital preservation. In other words, it is a risk-reward balancing act. However, there is also a...

July 19, 2019

News, Slider2019, Africa

19JulJuly 19, 2019

Africa. Why Rotich locked up Sh385bn pension cash for workers below 50 years

The Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) has come out to defend a legal amendment that will see more than Sh385 billion of workers’ pension savings made inaccessible to those below 50 years. Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich has, through a legal notice, amended pension rules effectively cutting out workers’ access to their employers’ portion of savings before clocking the official retirement age of 50. “Regulation 19 of the Principal Regulations is amended in paragraph (5) by deleting the words “and fifty...

July 19, 2019

News, Slider2019, Africa

17JulJuly 17, 2019

Africa. Treasury calls for pensions funding of infrastructure

The Treasury has joined a growing chorus for pension schemes to pool funds for big-ticket infrastructure projects to ease overreliance on expensive debt. Mr Stanley Kamau, the acting director-general for Public Investments and Portfolio Management at the Treasury, said the Sh1 trillion pension industry can help plug part of the country’s infrastructure finance gap. Kenya’s deficit in projects such as roads, power plants and lines, bridges, water and houses is conservatively estimated at more than Sh400 billion a year....

July 17, 2019

News, Slider2019, Africa

17JulJuly 17, 2019

Africa. Treasury bars early access to pension money

You will no longer be able to access pension contributions from your employer until retirement. In another flip-flop of the pension regulations, the National Treasury has reversed regulations that had allowed employees to withdraw up to half of pension contributions by their employers before they attained retirement age. LONG-TERM The policy, which was popular for employees in the private sector, had caused a major discomfort in the pension industry which had come to be accustomed to staying with retirement...

July 17, 2019

News, Slider2019, Africa

11JulJuly 11, 2019

Africa. Efforts intensify on drafting social protection policy

The Constitution of Namibia, Article 95, requires the state to actively promote as well as maintain the welfare of people and create equal opportunities. Zephania Kameeta, Minister of Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare this when officially opening a regional consultative workshop on the Social Protection Policy Draft at Keetmanshoop earlier this week. The parliamentarian then explained that this draft aims specifically to address vulnerabilities, tackle social exclusion and eradicate poverty. He continued by referring to the Namibian Constitution...

July 11, 2019

News, Slider2019, Africa

09JulJuly 9, 2019

Africa. Need for pension harmonization

In a press release dated July 5, 2019, the government of Sierra Leone through the Financial Secretary announced that out of a total sum of approximately 67 Billion Leones (SLL 66,830,114,540.00) owed as pensions to 371 former political government employees - including the former president, vice-presidents, former ministers and deputies, ambassadors and deputies, information and cultural Attachés, heads of agencies and departments - a fifty percent payment had been effected to the above erstwhile officials as pensions and gratuities,...

July 9, 2019

News, Slider2019, Africa

03JulJuly 3, 2019

Leveraging Switch Technology to Increase Pension Coverage to Informal Sector Workers. Workshop Live Coverage

We are doing a live coverage of the workshop "Leveraging Switch Technology to Increase Pension Coverage to Informal Sector Workers”, in Ghana, organized by this country's National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) and The World Bank. During the initial remarks, Mr. Hayford Attah Krufi, NPRA's CEO, said that “NPRA has seen the opportunity for the industry to embrace the technological environment to facilitate membership enrolment and contributions”. Pierre Laporte, Country Director of Ghana for The World Bank continued by celebrating Ghana's engaged regulator, involved informal-sector representatives &...

July 3, 2019

Event, News, Slider-LeftAfrica

21MayMay 21, 2019

Beyond mobile payments: Going up the value chain of fintech in Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa has become the global leader in mobile money adoption, usage, and innovation. The challenge now is to go beyond the success in payments to meet the unmet demand in the region for other, underdeveloped financial services that can facilitate the digitalization of other segments of the economy. In a new report, my colleagues and I take a closer look at the policy challenges that need to be addressed to go up the value chain of financial technology (fintech)...

May 21, 2019

News, SliderAfrica

July 2019

Extending Pension Coverage to the Informal Sector in Africa

Zambia. Government proposes to hike NAPSA contributions, abolishes private pension schemes

Risk-aversion among pension schemes a recipe for poverty

Africa. Why Rotich locked up Sh385bn pension cash for workers below 50 years

Africa. Treasury calls for pensions funding of infrastructure

Africa. Treasury bars early access to pension money

Africa. Efforts intensify on drafting social protection policy

Africa. Need for pension harmonization

Leveraging Switch Technology to Increase Pension Coverage to Informal Sector Workers. Workshop Live Coverage

May 2019

Beyond mobile payments: Going up the value chain of fintech in Africa