According to the Social Security Regulatory Authority (SSRA), currently the country has seven social security funds--National Social Security Fund (NSSF), PPF Pension Fund, Public Service Pension Fund (PSPF), Local Authorities Pension Fund (LAPF), Workers Compensation Fund, Government Employees Provident Fund (GEPF) and National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), which offer similar benefits.
For sometimes now, stakeholders have been engaged to air their views on envisaged reduction in number of the social schemes from the current number to either one or two to reduce the costs of pension benefits and operating costs.
The Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (Policy, Parliamentary Affairs, Labour, Employment, Youth and the Disabled), Ms Jenista Mhagama, said her permanent secretary was finalising plans with the stakeholders to reduce the number of funds.
“When everything is completed, I will make it public. But now I can’t reveal exactly time when we are going to have the reduced number of the pension funds,” she said. SSRA Director General Ms Irene Isaka told the ‘Daily News’ recently that they had already done their part since last year regarding the review of the number of the pension funds and submitted the views of the stakeholders to the government for further steps.
Among other recommendations, stakeholders have for sometimes now been proposing that the funds should be merged to form either one or two funds one for public sector and the other for private sector. The experts argue that costs to operate social security funds are higher except with the Public Sector Pension Fund.
Ms Isaka was quoted saying only the PSPF had low operating costs compared to the others. The high cost of running the other funds is ruining their ability to offer quality services, prompting the SSRA to prepare guidelines to reduce their operating costs.
As of July last year, the funds were directed to spend no more than 10 per cent of their values down from 15 per cent.
Daily News
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