Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB), the institution entrusted with pension contributions for tens of thousands of Rwandan workers, recently launched a platform that will help workers closely monitor their savings, a move that has been welcomed by many as revolutionary. For years, workers have remained in the dark regarding their accounts with the pension body, and some have only realized problems with their accounts when it is already too late for them to do anything about it. Some of the anomalies that have been happening include situations where employers have been making monthly deductions from employees but ending up not remitting the pension contributions, sometimes running into years of arrears. This greatly dents the employee’s portfolio, ending up getting way little in pension than they actually saved for. To our relief, through the pension dubbed Imisanzu, one will be able to monitor their account on a daily basis, and the icing on the cake is that whenever an employer has not remitted the monthly contribution, the subscriber will be notified so they follow up in good time. It will also save a lot of time, especially for people who have been having to make trips to the pension body just to get information about their savings. The development is part of the recent robust changes embarked on by the pension body aimed at positioning it as a member-first data driven institution that places the information in the hands of the worker who is saving with them. The platform and all other institutional reforms that have been embarked on since RSSB was granted autonomy in the quest to make it a high performing institution should be followed by a robust campaign to let their clientele know about these important products so that people do not have to make long distances to seek such easily available information. In the same vein, the different investment projects undertaken by the pension body should also be properly communicated to the workers to ensure the decisions are fully owned.
