Pension Administrator Enwealth Welcomes NSSF Contribution Increment

The Pension administrator Enwealth has welcomed the move to increase NSSF retirement contributions.

The court of appeal disregarded a judgement filed by Employment and Labour Relations that had declared the NSSF Act 2013 unconstitutional.

The Act recommended that lower earners contribute Sh200 to Sh600 and top earners deduct Sh320 to Sh1080 on a graduated scale.

The Enwealth CEO Simon Wafubwa called for simplicity of the opt-out option for schemes saying as it is, it will create a refunds nightmare between employers and NSSF.

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“In our view, there is a necessity to amend the act to be very simple in terms of opt out. If you have already complied with RBA regulations, there should be no requirement to apply to be exempted. It should be by default. That should be an issue of compliance for audit, rather than applying and then waiting for two months or months to get approval and then pursue NSSF for refunds. It is just too much bureaucracy,” said Wafubwa

Private schemes have ensured that there is more transparency in management and processing of claims, with RBA ensuring claims are processed within 30 days of application.

“For employers who do not have a scheme, you may have to set up one or join an umbrella scheme which has been approved by the RBA for the purpose of obtaining an exemption for remittance of Tier II contributions,” added Wafubwa.

Currently, there are about 3 million active contributors to pensions, including through the NSSF, with the private sector having about 850,000 members.