May 2020

How COVID-19 impacts asset allocation strategy of pension funds

The National Bureau of Statistics is expected to release Nigeria’s pension asset data for the first quarter of the year, next week. Ahead of the release, we’ll take a look at how the global Covid-19 pandemic is impacting the asset allocation strategy for pension fund administrators. Joining CNBC Africa more is Niyi Falade, CEO of Crusader Sterling Pensions. Watch video @CN Africa

Africa’s population is aging and it needs social protection

As the world continues to grapple with the unfolding COVID-19 crisis, many in Africa are worried not only about its spread but about the pandemic's long-term economic consequences as well. But long before our attention was captured by this virus, African governments were already ignoring an increasingly important factor in securing healthy populations and prosperous economies: Africa's older population is growing fast. Read also How COVID-19 impacts asset allocation strategy of pension funds According to a 2017 UN report on...

COVID-19 Economy: Why Nigeria must develop digital economy, increase national savings

Foreign Investment Network (FIN) has listed a number of economic strategies Nigeria and other African countries could adopt, to avert the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. FIN is a United Kingdom-based company driving foreign direct investment, FDI for Africa and other developing economies. Read also Tesla’s Newest Board Member Talks About Changing The World Through Japan’s $1.5 Trillion Pension Fund The group, in a video conference programme it organised, themed: COVID-19 and The Economic Threat: How Africa can overcome...

Stock market wipes out Kenyan pensioners’ $350m in just three months

Kenyan retirees lost over Ksh35 billion ($350 million) to falling stock prices and soaring inflation as the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the country’s economy in the past three months. Read also Australia. COVID-19 has killed 12% superannuation A survey conducted by Zamara Consulting Actuaries covering 415 pension schemes with a total of Ksh852.4 billion ($8.52 billion) in assets under management shows that the returns on pensioners’ investments in the three months to March 31 dropped, prompting a shift from...

Kenya. State pension pay to rise 29pc next year

The Treasury will spend nearly a third more on paying pensioners in the fiscal year beginning July, with the actual total amount to be spent for the first time expected to exceed Sh100 billion. According to estimates released to Parliament, the total pensions and gratuities paid will amount to Sh119.19 billion, from revised estimates of Sh92.49 billion of the fiscal year ending in June. This is Sh26.7 billion or 29 percent higher. It underlines the extent of liabilities the public has...

Kenya. State pension pay to rise 29pc next year

The Treasury will spend nearly a third more on paying pensioners in the fiscal year beginning July, with the actual total amount to be spent for the first time expected to exceed Sh100 billion. According to estimates released to Parliament, the total pensions and gratuities paid will amount to Sh119.19 billion, from revised estimates of Sh92.49 billion of the fiscal year ending in June. This is Sh26.7 billion or 29 percent higher. It underlines the extent of liabilities the...

Nigeria. PenCom dissolves interim management committee for First Guarantee Pension, appoints new board

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has dissolved the interim management committee of First Guarantee Pension Limited. The committee was set up in August 12, 2011 to handle the affairs of the Pension Fund Administrator (PFA), as part of the commission’s intervention pending the resolution of legal disputes. The intervention was also based on findings of routine and especial examinations carried out by the pension regulator. In a public statement that was released on Monday, PenCom announced that...

April 2020

Ghana’s Social Protection And Public Choices In The Days Of Covid-19

We cannot know how society protects its weakest and vulnerable, those at the bottom of society from deprivation until a catastrophe such as COVID-19, the 'unseeable, undead, unliving blob', to use the words of Arundhati Roy, is unleashed on us. Read also South Africa. The dichotomy between what pension scheme members want and what they get Ghana has a sub-optimal social protection system, its inadequacy due to our informal and poor information system. COVID-19 has amplified these weaknesses, unleashing a...

South Africa. The dichotomy between what pension scheme members want and what they get

The one thing an investment linked living annuity (also known as a living annuity, or illas) does not do is give pensioners a secure income flow. Few pensioners are likely to be financially secure until death. The advent of Covid-19 and the junking of South Africa’s debt makes it far worse when share prices and dividend payments drop. Most living annuity pensioners had already received a serious body blow even before the virus and the downgrade of South...

Kenya needs better social protection programmes during Covid-19

While scrolling through Twitter, it is likely that you will come across a post appealing for food aid. As Kenya recorded its 197th confirmed Covid-19 case in early April, many enterprises had reduced their operations, or closed down, causing massive losses in livelihoods. The economic impact has, in turn, increased the prevalence of food-insecure households. Although Kenya has set up a Covid-19 Emergency Fund, it does not currently support provision of food for the most vulnerable households. On Friday,...