State Acts to Pay Retirees Promptly

4 May 2011

President Rupiah Banda has said the Government has re-arranged the process and procedure of prompt payments and remittances of pensions in the country.

And President Banda has directed Minister of Finance and National Planning Stumbeko Musokotwane to work with the Public Service Pensions Fund (PSPF) board to look for money and pay retirees, some of whom have been waiting for more than a year.

In a speech read for him by Dr Musokotwane at the official opening of the annual general conference of the Zambia National Pensioners Association yesterday, President Banda said he was aware that not all challenges facing PSPF had been addressed.

He said his Government would reform PSPF so that it was able to issue pension benefits on time and guarantee its viability, continuity and ability to meet all its obligations.

Mr Banda said once that was done, all new entrants to the civil service would no longer contribute to the National Pension Scheme Authority.

“I, therefore, want the minister of Finance in conjunction with the PSPF board to come up with long-term policy implementation modalities for immediate adoption.

“This development will improve the revenue base for PSPF and thereby improve the delivery of service towards pensioners, and it would significantly relieve pensioners of the pressures they have so far had endured,” he said.

The president said he wanted the Fund to be in a position to provide reasonable pension benefits to its members because he was always touched by the issues of pensioners, widows and beneficiaries.

“I am familiar with the problems such persons have endured, my Government is obliged to find ways and means of looking after senior citizens and their dependants and must continue with the work of cleaning any procedural, legal, finance and related complications standing in the way of meaningful service of good benefits,” he said.

The president said the least his Government could do was to make the pensioners’ years in retirement as pleasant and as comfortable as possible.

Mr Banda said his Government would soon launch offices in Choma, Kabwe, Ndola, Solwezi and Mansa so that pension services could be accessed.

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