• The current piece of legislation only covers people in formal employment.
• People who are not employed are not covered.
• The new law will put into consideration arrangements that are not associated with the employers.

Pensions and Insurance Authority (PIA) says amendment of the Pensions Act of 1996 will extend pension coverage to the informal sector.
Authority Acting Deputy Registrar –Pensions, Mainza Musole told Money FM News in an interview that the current piece of legislation only covers people in formal employment, leaving out those who are unemployed.
Ms. Musole explained that the Authority wants to make it possible for every citizen to contribute to a Pension arrangement and be able to save for their retirement regardless of their social status.
She said the new law will put into consideration arrangements that are not associated with the employers.
“Right now the piece of legislation that we have is only focused on people who are employed, if you are not employed, you are not covered but when you look at statistics generally as a country, we are living longer not 100 years but because we have improvements in the economy even if we are not where we want to be, we have had improvements in health care so those help us live longer, if we are living longer, it becomes obvious that it’s not just those that are in offices, we are supposed to extend to the ones that are just generally the whole public.”
“We have grandmothers, they are old they never worked, they are just in the markets, in old age they are still looking after their children and they are handing up on this social cash transfer, we want to make it possible for every citizen to actually contribute to a Pension arrangement and be able to save for their retirement,” Ms. Musole explained.
She added that associations such as bus drivers and marketeers association can be able to set up a Pension Scheme, to ensure that everyone is given an opportunity to be able to secure their retirement.
“The beauty about Pension is that it allows you to do it in an affordable manner where you will be taking small contributions over time as they are being invested, you are able to end up with benefits. So the law is going to enable those kinds of arrangements that are not associated with the employers.”
“They can go even for associations for instance if we have the bus drivers associations, that association can set up a Pension Scheme, if you have a marketeers association, it can be able to set up that kind of arrangement so, that is what we are excited about to ensure that at least whoever is given an opportunity to be able to secure their retirement,” she stated.
Government through Pensions and Insurance Authority (PIA) is in the process of amending the Pensions Act of 1996 which was amended in 2005 to make it more responsive to economic and emerging investment opportunities.