PSSSF trains prospective retirees
MWANZA: THE Public Social Security Service Fund (PSSSF) has embarked on a programme to train civil servants who are expected to retire in the near future, to prepare them for their retirement life.
The social security scheme has also assured the civil servants that the fund is financially stable.
This was said here on Wednesday by PSSSF Acting Director General Ms Vupe Ligate when speaking at the official opening of a one-day training to the civil servants who are expected to retire in the near future.
Ms Ligate said in a period of five years the fund has been able to increase the value of pension fund by 27.76 percent from 5.83tri/- in July 2018 to 8.07tri/- in June 2023 which is an average increase of 6.72 per cent per annum.
She said the fund had continued to make more investments in accordance with the guideline of which until June this year, the value of investment was 7.92tr/- from 6.40tr/- when the fund started operations in the past five years which is equivalent to 23.5 per cent which is an average of an increase of four percent per year.
“A large part of this investment is in the form of government bonds which is 60 percent and the fund continued to make investments, in partnership with other investors in industrial projects, particularly in increasing the value chain of both agricultural and livestock sectors,” she explained.
Ms Ligate said the Fund, in recognition and support of the government efforts to tackle climate change plans to provide one tree each to a total of 739,000 retirees so that they can plant them.
“The move aims at enabling every retiree to plant a tree seedling and take care of it adding that the seedlings will also be given to the fund staff where by each worker will get 10 seedlings for planning.
She detailed that the training given to prospective retirees aims to help them cope with the situation outside the public service and also to make informed choice when the y decided to make investment or doing any business.
“Some retirees have been losing their pension by investing in businesses which are not well informed of as a result they end up in extreme poverty and being dependent,” he said.
Mwanza Regional Administrative Secretary (RAS) Mr Balandya Elikana who officiated the training, praised PSSSF for supporting the government efforts in tackling the effects of climate change.
He assured the retirees that the region had many economic opportunities for investments and the regional administration will be ready to ensure a conducive environment for investment activities so as to achieve a win-win situation for investors and the government itself.