NPF Fund Reform Could Provide Members with Pensions

By Sharon Nanau 

Reforming the National Provident Fund (NPF) Act would allow NPF members to receive pensions after retirement.

NPF Chief Executive Officer, Mike Wate, revealed in an interview with SIBC News that the existing legislation does not provide clear provisions for pension benefits to its members.

He said it is up to the government to consider including a pension clause in the legislation.

“ In our current act, there’s some provision for annuity, which is like a pension too but it’s so obscure in our current act that we want to pull it out, put in a new one and then expand it there, and so people, when they save for their retirement, they know that they can get a pension at the end of the day, or they can get their retirement lump sum, or part of the lump sum and the other part can be used for pension,” he said.

Mr Wate said the fund must also keep up with the changes in society seeing as now there’s a shift in people’s lifestyles today.

He explained in the past retirees could return to rural villages and live off the land today this is no longer the case.

“Our society has changed the dynamics have changed, we used to think about after you finish work, you go home, you go home, you plant your garden, you go fishing, but those realities are not where they are now. People have different life skills, and those skills they have in town, they develop over the working life, they can’t help them live in the villages. So, one of the ways to help them have a good life in retirement is to get this pension scheme, a pension as part of the NPF, the new NPF Act, they too can have a decent life after retirement,” he said.

In recent years, fund members have raised concerns about the need to include provisions for pension payments in the Act.

SIBC news understands the NPF Act is currently under review.

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