Close to 14 million workers mainly in the informal sector do not have any form of savings, according to the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA).

The authority is warns that this will have far reaching consequences in future as the number of poor retirees with no savings hits the streets.

According to Jackson Ngotho, a director with RBA, close to 13.9m Kenyans have no form of savings towards their retirement, the majority being in the informal sector.

He noted that of the 3.5 million employed workers, around 800,000 were contributing to both the NSSF and individual schemes with 2.7 million contributing only to NSSF.

“This means there are about 13.9 million Kenyans with no form of savings towards their retirement and this is a time bomb and it indicates that most Kenyans will retire poor,” he said.

Ngotho was however quick to note that despite the challenges, the sector was growing both in terms of membership and investment.

He noted that as at June 30, 2022, the assets under management stood at Sh1,514 billion a growth from Sh44.7 billon in 2000 when the Authority commenced its operations.

“Schemes continue to invest heavily in government securities with the asset class accounting for 45.60 per cent followed by guaranteed funds that account for 18.79 per cent,” he said.

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