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Big debate on pension funds

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MASERU – METROPOLITAN Lesotho hosted a roundtable discussion on the implementation of the Pension Fund Act in a bid to promote public awareness about pension funds in Lesotho.

Professor Mtende Mhango, Metropolitan Research Chairman and Professor of Law at the University of Limpopo, said this was part of a series of awareness campaigns that the insurance company is holding.

Professor Mhango said in November 2019 the Pension Fund Act of Lesotho was published four months before the hard lockdown was imposed in March 2020, “which in no doubt affected the pace of implementation of this legislation”.

Professor Mhango said the purpose of the law is to protect patient beneficiaries “to ensure that when people retire, the money that they have saved is there”.

He said the Act’s purpose is also to develop the domestic capital markets by ensuring that the pension contributions that are received by the pension funds, a portion of them is invested in the source.

“This was to ensure that there is economic growth in the country using these pension funds,” he said.

However, he said in order to achieve these goals, it takes time and it involves a lot of complex challenges.

This includes how pension funds ought to be governed, invested, and how the benefits must be administered.

Although new licences have been issued by the Central Bank of Lesotho, he said some organisations are still in a transitional stage.

However, there have also been some areas where progress has been made in terms of actual implementation.

The Principal Officer of Nedbank Lesotho Pension Fund, Mojabeng Matsau, said “this is to ensure that funds are not repatriated to other countries for purposes of investment, but also to ensure that we invest such monies in our countries”.

However, she said “we still don’t have enough at this moment in our country where we can invest investors’ funds”.

The Business Development Manager of Metropolitan Lesotho Tšepo Mokaki said before they can have their own opinions on the Pension Fund Act, “most variations in the management of pension funds were designed to serve only the employers’ members and were not accommodated in that space”.

He said they then designed the service model and put in place proper governance structures to accommodate the members and also to comply with the Pension Fund Act.

Mokaki said one of the biggest opportunities that they foresee for the advent of pension fund management is the requirement to invest two percent of the pension funds’ assets.

“This is the biggest opportunity for the super economy,” he said.

He said there is also an opportunity to invest pension contributions in local companies that need capital to grow and in the process spur growth.

He further said it creates job opportunities.

Mokaki said this is going to create a huge opportunity for the pension funds industry to educate members on the administration and management of retirement funds.

Refiloe Mpobole

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