In their quest to make ends meet in the face of acute unemployment, these people often find themselves in a situation where they encounter not only poor working conditions and low wages, but are also exposed to an uncertain future after retirement, or should they become incapacitated.
Recent efforts by pension funds to widening their coverage and cater for the self-employed and informal sector workers are commendable. This should go a long way in securing the future of workers outside the mainstream sectors, who, needless to say, form the bulk of the workforce in the country.
In their quest to make ends meet in the face of acute unemployment, these people often find themselves in a situation where they encounter not only poor working conditions and low wages, but are also exposed to an uncertain future after retirement, or should they become incapacitated.
Greats strides have been made, but Tanzania still lacks elaborate social welfare programmes like those in the developed countries that cater for those unable to work or who cannot find jobs.
This is understandable in a country that still depends on donors to some extent to fund its national budget. But the new thinking and approach among the pension funds should help more Tanzanians secure a better future. The country has about 22 million workers, but only about 1.5 million, or just over six per cent, of them are pensionable. This leaves the majority outside the social safety net.
This is why these efforts by the major pension funds deserve praise. We, however, urge the government to participate fully in this by enacting appropriate regulation to bind employers in the informal sector and ensure timely remission of contributions to the funds. There should be a mechanism to ensure that even informal sector workers play their part.
We also urge the funds to cut bureaucracy and ease payment of pensioners’ dues. The coverage of the self-employed and informal sector workers will be meaningful only if the pensioners’ dues are released as soon as they leave employment to avoid the long delays that leave members destitute.
