DAR ES SALAAM: MINISTER of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (Labour, Youth, Employment, and Persons with Disability), Prof Joyce Ndalichako, has called on the Public Social Security Service Fund (PSSSF) to organise continuous training for retirees to ensure that they make safe investments and avoid retirement savings crises.
Prof Ndalichako made the statement during the opening of a two-day seminar on preparation for prospective PSSSF retirees held in Dar es Salaam on Monday.
She also instructed PSSSF to raise the age range of training recipients up to five years prior to retirement in order to get better results and also to establish a reliable system for tracking retirees’ development.
“This will help to understand if the beneficiaries of the training are taking it into account what they learnt. It is also imperative to make this training more effective and keep an eye on retirees’ investments, to make sure they are safe,” stressed Prof Ndalichako.
She further urged the employers, especially the social security fund service officers, to be cautious when providing pensioners’ information, in order to plug loopholes of fraudsters, who use the information to steal from the pensioners’ benefits.
She advised prospective retirees to make the most of the knowledge offered to them at the seminar.
She also counselled them to join social groups that would be financially advantageous and to support one another both in good times and challenging times.
“Planning for retirement involves more than just saving money. It also entails developing a network of friends, who will be supportive and make retirement happier,” she explained.
She also cautioned retirees against rushing into different opportunities to make quick money, particularly those found online, as many of them are crafted by fraudsters.
PSSSF Director General, Mr Hosea Kashimba said that for the 2023/24 financial year, the fund expects to have 11,000 retirees, a number that he expects to increase every year.
“In order to ensure that retirees have adequate financial education and may invest responsibly, seven financial institutions are represented at this session,” he said.
According to him, among the topics expected to be covered in the seminar include investments in the financial markets, the duties and rights of employers and retirees, psychological preparing for retirement and environmental preservation to combat climate change.
“In support of the government’s efforts to combat climate change, PSSSF has a plan to give one tree seedling to each member, starting with all the retirees who are here today,” explained Mr Kashimba.
Explaining further, he said that PSSSF has a total of 739,000 members and 165,000 retirees, saying they will all be given a tree seedling to plant, meaning at least 1 million trees will be planted this year. The goal, he said, is to plant more than five million trees within five years.
This is the second time that PSSSF has organised a seminar like this for potential retirees. The first time doing so was in June and July 2021, when beneficiaries were reached in 11 regions across the country and a total of 370 retirees were reached and educated about retirement procedures and the importance of preparing for life after retirement.