July 2023
13Jul

“Pensioners Live in Fear”: Only 1 Out of 10 Nigerians Has Access to Pensions

Hamisu Bala Idris, the managing director of Norrenberger Pensions Limited, has exposed the extent of pension reach in Nigeria. The disclosure follows several reports of pensioners across different parts of the country regularly lamenting the non-payment of their pensions, especially by state governors. Idris, during a retirement planning seminar organised to empower individuals close to retirement and retirees for a financially-secured future after retirement in Abuja, disclosed that only 10% of Nigerians have access to pension schemes, as reported by Vanguard. The...

July 13, 2023
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07Jul

Pensions for all. Proposals for more inclusive pension systems in Latin America.

Edited by David Tuesta y Gautam Bhardwaj One of the pending tasks in Latin America is the development of a pension system that is widely accessible, sufficient and financially sustainable over time. Beyond the different degrees of progress in each of the countries, they all face similar internal and global challenges. In particular, the problems of high informality of institutions and labor markets make the road even more uphill. The recent Covid19 pandemic scenario has highlighted the structural weaknesses of pension...

July 7, 2023
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June 2023
14Jun

Ghana. NPRA to increase pension penetration by 25% amongst informal sector workers by 2026

Increased pension penetration among employees in the informal sector is the goal of the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA). This move, if finalized, will see penetration increase from 6 percent to 25 percent by 2026. The Authority explains that although a section of the informal sector holds misconceptions about pensions, it is committed to its sensitization drive to ensure that its targets are achieved. At a brief ceremony to highlight the end of the SECO project, Chief Executive Officer of the...

June 14, 2023
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09Jun

Projections of the Size and Composition of the U.S. Population: 2014 to 2060

By Sandra L. Colby & Jennifer M. Ortman  Between 2014 and 2060, the U.S. population is projected to increase from 319 million to 417 million, reaching 400 million in 2051. The U.S. population is projected to grow more slowly in future decades than in the recent past, as these projections assume that fertility rates will continue to decline and that there will be a modest decline in the overall rate of net international migration. By 2030, one in five Americans...

June 9, 2023
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09Jun

Why Over 90% of Sub-Saharan African Workers Lack Pension Plan

Why Over 90% of Sub-Saharan African Workers Lack Pension Plan In the past six months, France has seen an uproar of aggravated workers who have taken to the streets to protest the government's new pension reform. In April, France's Constitutional Council, which plays a similar role to the US Supreme Court, approved the most controversial part of the reform - raising the retirement age from 62 to 64. On May 1, International Workers Day, around 112,000 people participated in the largest...

June 9, 2023
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May 2023
19May

Access to Pensions, Old-Age Support, and Child Investment in the People’s Republic of China

By Xiaoyue Shan & Albert Park This paper studies how access to public pensions affects old-age support and child investment in traditional societies. Guided by predictions from an overlapping generations model, we analyze the influences of a new pension program in rural People’s Republic of China, using a difference-in-differences approach. We find that the program crowds out transfers from working-age adults, especially men, to their elderly parents. Interestingly, the impact on child investment significantly differs by child gender. While adult...

May 19, 2023
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18May

What’s the State of Sub-Saharan Africa’s Pension Savings?

Less than 10% of the workers in sub-Saharan Africa save for old age, the lowest rate for any region in the world. That implies most of the breadwinners today won’t be able to afford basic items after retirement. A pension plan is meant to commit employers to make regular savings so that employees will continue to earn after retirement. Pension schemes in sub-Saharan African countries are characterised by low contributions due to low earnings, high informality, high financial illiteracy levels and lack...

May 18, 2023
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15May

Philippines. Millions sans pension a ‘ticking time bomb’

The massive protests over the highly unpopular legislation that France passed, raising its retirement age from 62 to 64 to save its pension system, may be a window to a similar future in the Philippines, with its own “ticking time bomb” in its pension scheme. University of the Philippines School of Labor and Industrial Relations (UP-SOLAIR) professor Emily Christi A. Cabegin warned of this scenario, where the government may have to spend millions of pesos to take care of thousands...

May 15, 2023
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12May

Ghana. Only about 1.9m out of 10 million workers are covered under SSNIT scheme – SSNIT boss

Only about 1.9 million of the 10 million or so workers in the country are covered under the Social Security and National Insurance (SSNIT) Scheme. According to the Director General of SSNIT, Dr John Ofori-Tenkorang, what is more, disturbing is that only about 32,000, representing 1.68% of active contributors, are self-employed. This is despite the fact that the majority of workers in the country are self-employed and/or work in the informal sector. Speaking at the launch of the SEED – a campaign...

May 12, 2023
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11May

Ghana. SSNIT expands coverage of basic social security scheme to self-employed persons

The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has launched the Self-Employed Enrolment Drive (SEED), a product geared towards expanding coverage of the basic national social security scheme to self-employed Ghanaians. Dr John Ofori-Koranteng, Director-General of SSNIT, speaking at the launch of the product in Kumasi, said the aim was to redefine social security in Ghana and give hope to the self-employed to be able to retire in dignity and comfort. In pursuit of this agenda, the management of SSNIT had...

May 11, 2023
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