October 2021

The South African Retirement Reality Report 2020

By 10X Investment Even before Covid-19 and the associated lockdown, many South Africans, including many thousands of pensioners, were in crisis. The global pandemic has magnified many vulnerabilities in our society. It is in this context that 10X Investments launches the third annual report on retirement readiness in South Africa. The inaugural Retirement Reality Report, published in 2018, set out to interrogate the developing retirement crisis and its underlying causes based on the results of our Retirement Reality survey. The report...

August 2021

Benefits and Costs of Social Pensions in Sub-Saharan Africa

By Melis U. Guven & Phillippe G. Leite The lack of efficient social security systems, the presence of large informal sectors, and the pace at which the population is aging in some Sub-Saharan African countries are red flags warning of a potential long-term problem: that is, the inability of countries to provide old-age income security to all. Many adults in the region have difficulties accessing health care and other essential services, increasing their vulnerability and their likelihood of becoming impoverished...

African Pension Funds Report 2020

By AMETrade AMETrade hosts the annual Pension Funds and Alternative Investment Africa Conference (PI Africa). It is the leading forum on the continent gathering institutional investors and alternative investments representatives, examining new opportunities to diversify their portfolios to maximise returns. The conference has served as arguably the biggest networking and information sharing platform for the pension funds and alternative investment community, including leading pension funds, SWF, fund managers, asset managers & regulatory and administration heads. This report provides an overview of...

July 2021

Pensions and Timing of Retirement: The Case of the Public Service Pension Scheme in Uganda

By Kibs Boaz Muhanguzi Unsustainable defined-benefit public pension scheme, rising life expectancy, and high level of unemployment endanger the socioeconomic and political stability of Uganda’s economy. This research approaches the problem from labor supply point of view by: (i) analyzing the effect of the public service pension scheme on timing of retirement; (ii) investigating the required early retirement incentives that would increase employment in the public service; and (iii) determining the predictors of postretirement employment in the public service in...

June 2021

Bright Africa 2020 Pension Industry. Modernising pension policies to future-proof long-term savings

By RISCURA The latest Bright Africa Pensions research highlights how African demographics are evolving and the impact of this on long-term savings. There is no doubt that Africa’s population is and will remain the world’s largest youthful cohort for a long-time to come, so serious thought, planning and innovation are urgently required to address the risk of individuals outliving their retirement savings. Research conducted by Albouy and Nogues (2019) shows that globally, life expectancy measured at age 65, has grown...

East Africa’s countries race to form inclusive, affordable pension schemes for informal sector

East African Community partner states are in the process of creating micro-pension schemes for employees in the informal sector to address the low pension coverage in the region, estimated at less than 10 percent. Read also Bright Africa 2020 Pension Industry. Modernising pension policies to future-proof long-term savings A new pension sector survey by global investment firm RisCura shows that Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya are among African countries racing to create affordable and all-inclusive old-age saving schemes for the informal sector...

Is informality a barrier to economic growth in Uganda? Empirical analysis

By Stephen Esaku We apply autoregressive distributed lag modeling approach to investigate the short- and long-run relationship between economic growth and informality in Uganda. We use annual time series data, covering the period from 1991 to 2017. We find evidence of short- and long-run relationship between economic growth and informality. The results indicate that an increase in informality significantly reduces the rate of economic growth in both the long- and short-run. This evidence seems to indicate that in low income...

May 2021

How Regulators Use Sex-Disaggregated Data and RegTech to Enhance Financial Inclusion

By Toronto Centre Financial inclusion of women brings disproportionate benefits to their families and to economic development, yet in many countries an access-to-finance gender gap remains. Sex-disaggregated data (SDD) is key to monitoring and addressing this problem. This study examines the role that financial services regulators can play in efforts to address financial inclusion of women: how they are using, or could use, SDD to enhance women’s access to and use of financial products and services of the right quality that...

Cómo los Reguladores utilizan Datos Desagregados por Sexo y la RegTech para Mejorar la Inclusión Financiera (How Regulators Use Sex-Disaggregated Data and RegTech to Enhance Financial Inclusion)

Por Toronto Centre La inclusión financiera de las mujeres aporta beneficios más que proporcionales a sus familias y al desarrollo económico, pero en muchos países persiste una brecha de género en el acceso al crédito. Los datos desagregados ​​por sexo (DDS) son clave para monitorear y abordar este problema. Este estudio examina el papel que los reguladores de servicios financieros pueden desempeñar en los esfuerzos para abordar la inclusión financiera de las mujeres: cómo están usando, o podrían usar los DDS...

African Demographics Changing Rapidly, Forcing To Re-Think Pensions

Africa has long been known for its youthful population, and while the continent will continue to have the largest youth cohort in the world, they’ll live longer than their forebearers, according to the latest Bright Africa pensions research from RisCura, a global investment firm. Read also Investing in an Ageing Population The research shows that longevity expectations have changed dramatically, thanks to better nutrition, medical advances and overall improvements in the general standard of living. Read also Shock retirement numbers for South...