PENSIONS and Insur­ance Author­ity (PIA) regis­trar and chief exec­ut­ive officer Namakau Ntini says strong gov­ernance is the found­a­tion of sus­tain­able pen­sion sys­tems as it pro­motes account­ab­il­ity, trans­par­ency and prudent man­age­ment of retire­ment sav­ings.

Mrs Ntini said the pen­sion industry is oper­at­ing in an increas­ingly com­plex envir­on­ment char­ac­ter­ised by eco­nomic uncer­tainty, chan­ging demo­graph­ics, tech­no­lo­gical dis­rup­tion, cli­mate-related risks and evolving mem­ber expect­a­tions.

She said strong gov­ernance remains the found­a­tion upon which sus­tain­able pen­sion sys­tems are built, as it pro­motes account­ab­il­ity, prudent decision-mak­ing, trans­par­ency, effect­ive risk man­age­ment, eth­ical lead­er­ship and effect­ive over­sight of pen­sion fund assets.

Mrs Ntini was speak­ing on Thursday when she opened the three-day third annual pen­sion con­fer­ence on strength­en­ing pen­sion fund gov­ernance in a chan­ging reg­u­lat­ory and invest­ment land­scape.

She said gov­ernance should no longer be viewed merely as a com­pli­ance require­ment but as a stra­tegic pil­lar that anchors the sus­tain­ab­il­ity, cred­ib­il­ity and resi­li­ence of pen­sion schemes.

Mrs Ntini added that good gov­ernance is crit­ical in pro­tect­ing the retire­ment secur­ity and fin­an­cial well­being of pen­sion scheme mem­bers, whose live­li­hoods depend on the sound man­age­ment of pen­sion funds.

She said the author­ity has con­tin­ued imple­ment­ing gov­ernance and pruden­tial meas­ures aimed at strength­en­ing over­sight within the pen­sion industry, includ­ing cor­por­ate gov­ernance guidelines, fit and proper guidelines for key office­hold­ers, and man­dat­ory trustee train­ing through the Cer­ti­fic­ate of Com­pet­ence for Trust­ees of Pen­sion Schemes (CCTPS) pro­gramme.

Mrs Ntini also noted that the author­ity intro­duced the Pen­sion Scheme Reg­u­la­tions of 2021 to pro­mote prudent invest­ment prac­tices, diver­si­fic­a­tion and sound risk man­age­ment.

Minet Zam­bia Con­sult­ing Lim­ited man­aging dir­ector Humphrey Kabwe also called on stake­hold­ers to strengthen gov­ernance prac­tices to safe­guard mem­ber bene­fits and ensure the long-term sus­tain­ab­il­ity of pen­sion schemes.

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