December 2021

Nigeria. PenCom says 72,000 participants registered for Micro Pension Plan

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has disclosed that 72,000 participants have been registered under the Micro Pension Plan (MPP) as at November 2021. This was disclosed by Head, Micro Pension Department, PenCom, Mr Dowda Ahmed, in an interview on Friday with NAN during the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp) Annual Media Parley in Lagos, themes, “Micro Pension – Challenges and Opportunities.” He also pointed out the category of people under the scheme. What PenCom is saying Ahmed stated that the scheme...

Brexit would be better for UK workers, Boris Johnson promised. But will it?

The European Commission’s plans to protect people in precarious jobs in the gig economy could be the most ambitious extension of workers’ rights from Brussels since Britain left the EU. If adopted, the plans would mean that gig economy companies, such as Uber and Deliveroo, would have to treat workers as employees with minimum wages (where they exist), sick pay, holidays and better accident insurance, unless they could prove that drivers and couriers were genuinely self-employed. Workers would also get greater...

Pensions at a Glance 2021 OECD AND G20 INDICATORS

Pensions at a Glance 2021 OECD AND G20 INDICATORS

By: OECD This ninth edition of Pensions at a Glance provides a range of indicators for comparing pension policies and their outcomes between OECD countries. The indicators are also, where possible, provided for the other major economies that are members of the G20. Two special chapters provide a review of the impact of COVID‑19 on pensions and of recent pension reforms (Chapter 1) and an indepth analysis of automatic adjustment in pension systems (Chapter 2). Get the book here

Kenya. Zamara targets WhatsApp users with digital pensions plan

Zamara Group has expanded its digital pension plan Fahari Retirement to allow users to access it on the online messaging app WhatsApp. The pension firm targets to grow its customer base for its retirement products, especially in the informal sector. Fahari Retirement Plan allows individuals to save as low as Sh20 per day or Sh300 per month. They can access the funds after 50 years in lump sum or as regular income. Customers are also allowed to withdraw their savings anytime...

Jamaica. Informal Sector Workers to Get NIS Benefits

Jamaica. Informal Sector Workers to Get NIS Benefits

For the first time, Jamaica’s household helpers and fisherfolk will be able to secure pension benefits under the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) as the Government moves to formalise these sectors. This will be facilitated under the Transition to Formality Action Plan, which will see this segment of workers being able to access health and life insurance, pension and other facilities to provide them with security and protection in their work environment. The Action Plan, which was officially launched by Minister of...

November 2021

Ghana. Employers must pay pension contributions of casual workers – TDCL

Tema District Council of Labour (TDCL) has called on the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) to ensure that employers enrol their casual workers on pension schemes. Mr Emmanuel Addo-Kumi, Vice Chairman Tema District Council of Labour, told the Ghana News Agency that even though laws were covering the payment of pension for workers, some companies did not do so, especially for their casual workers. Mr Addo-Kumi said, “the casual workers are complaining, some companies don’t pay which is against the law,...

India’s informal economy more than halved

The Reserve Bank of India’s digital payments index also captures the spread of digital, taking into account growth in the payments infrastructure. Of the four key objectives of demonetisation, India appears to have done well on three. There has been a rise in digital transactions. Besides this, there has also been a drop in fake currencies. Counterfeit notes detected continued to fall from 3.1 lakh in FY19 to 2.9 lakh in FY20 and 2 lakh in FY21. There are also...

Ghana. NPRA raises alarm bells – Only 6% informal sector workers on pension scheme

Only about 600,000 out of an estimated 10.2 million workers in the informal sector are currently enrolled on at least a pension scheme, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), Mr Hayford Attah Krufi, has disclosed. He said the figure represented just six per cent of all informal sector workers who form 85 per cent of the country’s entire active labour population. “As a regulatory authority, we are worried that only six per cent of workers...

October 2021

The Long Shadow The Long Shadow of Informality Edited by Challenges and Policies

By Franziska Ohnsorge and Shu Yu In emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs), far too many people and small enterprises operate outside the line of sight of governments—in a zone where little help is available to them in an emergency such as the COVID-19 crisis. This “informal” sector constitutes more than 70 percent of total employment in these countries and roughly one-third of output. Policy makers have long had good reasons to worry about this sector: Its participants are vulnerable even...

Ghana. Tier-3 Pension Scheme: Labour Minister seeks support to woo informal sector

The Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, has called on traditional rulers to join hands with the new Tier-3 Pension Scheme by encouraging people in the informal sector to contribute to the scheme. That, he said, would enable people in the informal sector to enjoy voluntary personal pension payments to cater for their needs at old age. He said chiefs, as opinion leaders, had the clout to influence informal sector workers to take vital decisions such as...