HakiPensheni

Minimum pension 50,000/- from January 2010 - PPF

By The guardian reporter

15th September 2009

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PPF director-general William Erio

The minimum monthly pension paid through the Parastatals Pensions Fund (PPF) will be raised to 50,000/- effective January next year, the Fund has announced.
PPF director-general William Erio made the announcement during an editors’ forum hosted by the Fund at the weekend in Morogoro.
“Effective January next year, the minimum pension paid to our retirees will be 50,000/-, up from the current 20,000/- per month,” he said.
However, he said, a thorough assessment on all pensioners listed under the PPF will be made to identify ghost pensioners, if any.
“An assessment will be undertaken first because we need to be absolutely sure we are not paying ghost pensioners,” said Erio.
According to the PPF director of Pension Services, Badru Msangi the number of pensioners receiving monthly payments reached 20,216 by the end of August, this year.
“The number excludes children of deceased members receiving education benefits,” he elaborated. The total amount of pension benefits paid to the members is over 1.2bn/- per month.
Msangi said the amount of pension has grown tremendously from the 12,850/-, which was paid to 23 members in 1971.
Meanwhile, the global financial crisis is crippling investments in the country’s social security sector, according to PPF top officials.
Both PPF director-general Erio and the Fund’s acting director for Planning and Investments Nathan Mnyawami have admitted that the crisis has adversely affected real estate segment.
Mnyawami said the Fund was facing difficulties in collecting rents from customers who have been affected by the global crunch and likewise, benefits gained from investments in the hotel industry were not paying much as they used to previously.
Erio on the other hand said most hotels and tour operators have laid off workers, as a result the Fund, which also accepts membership from the private sector, have lost a substantial number of clients who before the crunch contributed monthly.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN