Kenya seeks pension savings for low income earners

Millions of low-income workers in Kenya largely working in the informal sector are unable to save for retirement because of a lack of pension products designed to accommodate them and fear that their pension savings may be inaccessible after retirement, a new research has revealed.The research released on Wednesday in Nairobi, conducted by the United States International University (USIU), found only 6 percent of informal low income workers in Kenya are saving for pension.“Those with a pension plan only save 10 percent of their income, which is a very small figure considering that the average monthly income is 70.5 U.S. dollars,” said Dr. Amos Njuguna, a lecturer at the USIU’s Chandaria School of Business and the lead researcher for the research.Low income earners have two opportunities to save for pension, through the government-owned agency known as the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) which requires mandatory saving for those in formal employment, and the other scheme by pension industry regulator, the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) that offers daily savings opportunity of 7 dollars per month.The lack of savings for small income earners mostly working in the informal sector is of concern to the government because the sector accounts for 80 of all employed Kenyans meaning that more Kenyans retire without a retirement income, becoming burden to the productive sector.The new research is expected to help the RBA, a quasi government body, come up with new policy proposals that will help increase the number of low income earners that are saving for pension in Kenya.”Informal sector workers have the ability and willingness to save but they lack the competence and saving avenues to transform these savings into substantial retirement income,” concluded the research. According to Dr. Njuguna, it is easy to get low income earners in Kenya to save for pension because majority of them, 76 percent, already save their income in their bank accounts and micro finance institutions. The research found out about 80 percent of informal low income workers have faith in a government supported pension scheme, indicating the challenge for the government to streamline the NSSF to increase its efficiency especially in settling pension for retirees and the families of the deceased. The research also found the most of the small income earners do not know how to join the existing schemes that can accommodate their needs. Xinhua

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Kenya seeks pension savings for low income earners