The Social Security Fund of Rwanda (SSFR) last year spent Rwf6.3bn on 31.000 pensioners, the institution’s Director for Contributions and Benefits; Oswald Munyandekwe has said. Munyandekwe told The New Times in an exclusive interview Wedneday that an average Rfw 1.5 billion is spent on people who get quarterly cheques. “When we say 36,000 people, we mean including their dependants. However, what we have in our data base are 31,000 pension files,” he said. Munyandekwe said that of this amount, 96 percent was spent on pensions while 4 percent was spent on occupational hazards. He however pointed out that there are many people who are not included in the above number who received lumpsums. “There is a big number of our former clients who received lumpsums because they retired before spending the mandatory fifteen years in service. The law stipulates that they get one wholesome pay cheque,” he said. He also explained that the previous government had emptied all the institution’s bank accounts during the Genocide. “SSFR had bank accounts in several banks, but after the genocide, the Bank of Kigali account was the only one that had some little money. All the others were empty,” he explained. He said that the though the government owes SSFR some Rfw 51 billion that accumulated before the genocide, the current government had not asked for any sort of loan from the institution. “Surprisingly, even with the hardships that followed the genocide, the current government has never asked for a loan, instead, they looked for a way to pay back what the previous government owed us,” he said. He blamed employers who delay to remit their employees’ contributions and make timely declarations for costing the institutions they head millions in interest accrued from the delays. Ends
