January 2023
12Jan

Kenyan Pension Funds To Intensify Regional Investments In 2023

The Kenya Pension Funds Investment Consortium (KEPFIC) will this year mobilize billions in investment from local pension funds for regional opportunities. KEPFIC Secretariat in a public statement said it is looking for bankable projects that are backed by strong environmental, social and governance principles. “KEPFIC is releasing this Request for Proposals (RFP) to invite investment proposals from project sponsors and fund managers that are looking to raise capital from Kenyan pension funds for regional opportunities,” KEPFIC announced in public statement today. KEPFIC...

January 12, 2023
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December 2022
09Dec

Kenya. World Bank backs bid to raise NSSF contributions

The World Bank has backed Kenya’s efforts to increase pension contributions by workers to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) from the current Sh200 per month to six per cent of monthly pay. This is a boost to the Kenya Kwanza administration’s push for enhanced pension savings with employees’ monthly contribution to NSSF expected to rise ten-fold to Sh2,000, with employers expected to match this amount. President William Ruto’s push for increased contribution to the provident fund has already been endorsed...

December 9, 2022
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November 2022
30Nov

Kenya. Employers want new NSSF rates spread over five years

Employers want the proposed increase in the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) contributions spread over  five-years, even as they call for more consultation. The Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) says this will enable employers and employees adjust to accommodate the new rates, further adding that it should be effected based on “statutory minimums.” This comes as the government continues to push for an increase on the monthly contributions through the NSSF Act.  It seeks to raise this from the Sh200 flat...

November 30, 2022
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18Nov

Make pension schemes attractive: a call for Kenyan pension funds

Pension funds in Kenya are not attracting enough savers from both the formal and informal sector because of low penetration, experts say. A publication of the Zamara Kenya Pensions Watch 2022, shows coverage of the current pension in Kenya is at around 17.7 per cent of the total employed population. About 83.2 per cent of employed Kenyans in the informal sector have no access to any form of pension savings. Speaking at a Pension Trustee Seminar, organised by Zamara, former education CS...

November 18, 2022
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04Nov

Kenya. Pension assets fall Sh33bn on bonds, equities hit

Pension industry assets under management shrank by Sh33.4 billion in the six months to June on the back of paper losses on equities and government bond holdings, representing the first half-year decline in retiree assets in 19 years. The Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) said the contraction in the assets by 2.16 percent to Sh1.514 trillion was due to volatility in the financial markets and the political campaigns ahead of August’s general elections. The value of government bond holdings by the industry...

November 4, 2022
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October 2022
21Oct

Kenya. Pension-backed housing starts dimly amid calls for its overhaul

Access to affordable housing is a challenge to many public and private sector employees who retire without a home, despite having worked and saved towards a pension. One of the initiatives by the government to increase access to housing was by amending the Retirement Benefits Act (RBA) to allow pension funds to be used as collateral for the purchase of a home. The move was billed as a silver bullet in enabling civil servants and workers to own homes. And two years...

October 21, 2022
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18Oct

Returns on Kenya’s pension fund beat inflation as income surges

Kenya’s National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has paid an interest of 10% on retirement savings in the year ended June 30, 2021, up from 7% a year earlier, Business Daily newspaper reported. Read also Kenya. Pension-backed housing starts dimly amid calls for its overhaul The interest payout, considered the largest on the retirement savings in seven years, comes from a 237% rise in net investment income to 32.3 billion Shillings ($267.72 million), supported by dividends from Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firms. NSSF returns...

October 18, 2022
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September 2022
30Sep

Kenya. State to pay pension savings for 15m Jua Kali workers

The Kenya Kwanza regime has pledged to top up by half the retirement savings made by workers in the informal sector in an ambitious plan aimed at more than doubling national savings in the near term. President William Ruto said his administration will add a shilling for every Sh2 saved by workers outside the formal sector, up to Sh6,000 every year in a planned drive that targets more than 15 million workers in the Jua Kali sector. “We intend to overhaul...

September 30, 2022
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30Sep

Sustainable finance policy a ‘blind spot’ for European pension funds

Some of Europe’s biggest pension funds are not actively engaged in emerging EU-level sustainable finance policy, according to climate think tank InfluenceMap. As reported by European Pensions, the research, which covered 25 of Europe’s largest pension funds and 10 national pension fund associations, found that only four of the 25 funds and five of the 10 associations showed ‘meaningful engagement’ with sustainable finance policy. InfluenceMap stated that these findings pointed to a potential ‘blind spot’ for the industry, which has shown...

September 30, 2022
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August 2022
04Aug

Kenya. Risk-averse pension schemes bag higher returns

Pension funds that eschew risk are reaping the benefits of their conservative approach to investments, outperforming their more aggressive peers whose returns are being dented by bigger exposure to underperforming equities and offshore assets. Conservative schemes, which on average allocate over 80 percent of their assets under management to risk-free, stable yielding government securities, recorded a return of 2.9 percent in the year to June 2022, industry analysis done by fund administrator Zamara shows. Schemes with a moderate approach to investment,...

August 4, 2022
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