November 2017

15Nov

Kenya. CMA plans study on Fintech platforms for adoption in sector

The Capital Markets Authority (CMA) is planning a study on financial technology (Fintech) innovations to help open up the sector for tech intermediaries. The proposed regulatory sandbox will allow Fintech start-ups to test and experiment innovations before they are approved as platforms of trade in the market. This is part of the CMA’s 10-year master plan seeking to promote innovations as a way of growing participants and volumes of trade in the capital markets. The baseline diagnostic survey, set for first...

November 15, 2017
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October 2017

27Oct

Kenya. Concern over county governments failure to remit employee pension

County governments have not remitted Sh30 billion to employees' pension and provident funds. According to CPF Financial Services Group, the administrators of both schemes, counties had not remitted Sh12 billion to the Local Authorities Provident Fund (LapFund) as at September 30 2017. The devolved units had also not remitted Sh18 billion to the Local Authorities Pensions Trust (Laptrust), according to an earlier report by CPF Group. “We had earlier revealed that county governments have not remitted Sh18 billion to Laptrust....

October 27, 2017
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September 2017

19Sep

Kenya: Retirement Body in List for Top Award in Africa

A Johannesburg-based international investment research and communications group has nominated Kenya's Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) for its 2017 top award. The Ai Capital Market Index Series Awards look at Africa's best bourses and the role played by individual pension regulatory agencies in promoting investments within their countries. Judges consider how investments by various entities support the development of Africa's capital markets, promotion of pension fund investments in Africa as well as stimulating increased pensions fund investments and membership. Africa investor...

September 19, 2017
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August 2017

07Aug

Kenya. NSE share rally boosts pension fund returns

Pension subscribers have begun reaping the benefits of a recovering equities market that has now boosted average returns for schemes above the rate of inflation. An industry survey by Actuarial Services East Africa (Actserv) for the quarter ending June shows that the average return for schemes rose to 8.1 per cent from 2.5 per cent in the first quarter, buoyed by a jump in returns on equity investments to 18.3 per cent compared to 0.2 per cent in quarter one. The...

August 7, 2017
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July 2017

07Jul

Kenya. Push for new rules to protect retirees

The pension industry says the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) should set minimum qualifications for trustees. The industry has assets close to Sh1 trillion with over 1,400 registered retirement benefits schemes, 30 licensed administrators, 19 fund managers, 11 custodians and 10 actuaries. “Just like there is clamour in the political sphere for minimum qualifications for certain offices, it makes a lot of sense for us to request our regulator to pursue a point whereby trustees will have minimum qualifications and if we...

July 7, 2017
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04Jul

Kenya introduces new retirement plan for its 500,000 civil servants

Kenya’s introduction of a new retirement plan for civil servants is set to spur growth in the pension fund industry, potentially helping to triple assets under management, according to the head of the new government employee fund. The country’s 500,000 public workers were required to contribute 7.5% of their salaries to the new fund from this month, which would be supplemented by a 15% contribution from the government, Edward Odundo said in an interview in the capital, Nairobi. The fund sought...

July 4, 2017
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May 2017

03May

How pension funds can help relieve Kenya’s debt burden

Kenya’s heavy debt burden could be managed without hurting ongoing execution of the mega infrastructure projects if the government taps into the multi-billion shilling pension funds. That was the verdict of the pension industry leaders meeting in Nairobi last week, under the auspices of an African Development Bank-backed think-tank, Making Finance Work for Africa (MFW4A). African governments, they said, must rethink their sources of development funds and opt for those that best serve the interests of their countries in the long...

May 3, 2017
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April 2017
20Apr

Kenya to launch universal pension scheme in January 2018

Everyone in Kenya over the age of 70 will be entitled to a new, guaranteed monthly income after the country’s Cabinet Secretary of Finance, Henry Rotich, announced the launch of a universal pension in January 2018. Kenya follows in the footsteps of Tanzania’s semi-autonomous island Zanzibar, which became the first location in east Africa with a fully state-funded universal pension last April. Making the announcement in his 2017/18 budget speech yesterday (30 March), Mr Rotich revealed that people above 70 will...

April 20, 2017
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