The Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) is targeting to increase its asset base to Sh 3.2 trillion by the year 2029, RBA’s Deputy Director of ICT, Peter Ngunyi, has disclosed.
Speaking in Nyeri during the launch of a public sensitisation programme, Ngunyi said that the ambitious target is contained in the Authority’s five-year strategic plan whose implementation starts in July this year.
“Our asset base is about 1.7 trillion but in the new strategic plan we are targeting to get to about Sh3.2 trillion in the next five years,” said Ngunyi.
Statistics from RBA shows that only 26 per cent of Kenya’s labour market is saving for retirement which translates to a paltry 3.2 million active RBA members. According to Ngunyi, the Authority is now eyeing the informal sector as well as professionals who are yet to enlist themselves in any pension scheme to realise the ambitious projections.
“Most of the 26 per cent that is covered is from the formal sector so RBA is trying to partner with the individual pension planners under the insurance sector so that we can venture where the mass is. And the mass is in the informal sector, we are talking about people in the Jua kali sector and the professionals such as lawyers and doctors who are not in formal employment and we are telling them to join an individual pension plan and save for retirement,” said Ngunyi.
While reassuring Kenyans about the safety of their savings, Ngunyi said that the Authority had put in place adequate safeguards and tough regulations to facilitate easier remittance of workers’ savings by their employers as well as ensure retirees access their savings upon retirement.
“Our first mandate is to regulate the pension sector and to ensure that members’ benefits are protected anytime a member contributes to a pension scheme. The industry is highly regulated and no money can be lost so Kenyans should be assured that anytime you save for pension your money is safe,” he said.
By Wangari Mwangi
