1.3tr/- up for grabs at PSPF by retirees

PSPF Director General, Mr Adam Mayingu

RETIREES with PSPF Pension Fund are expected to be paid some 1.3trn/- in the financial year 2017/18, it has been revealed.

PSPF Director General, Mr Adam Mayingu, said here recently that the fund expects to pay the pensions to a total of 9,552 retirees and urged them to be well prepared on how to use the money wisely so that it could keep reproducing sustainably.

Mr Mayingu said the fund with other stakeholders will be supporting the seniors on investment opportunities that will, apart from getting them income, create jobs to other people, especially the youth.

He said that as Tanzania enters the industrialisation drive, the retirees could as well follow suit. The fund, having initiated training to workers who will retire in a two-year stint from now in Mwanza and Kilimanjaro regions, before rolling out to the whole country.

Evaluation of the fund so far shows that it has paid 4.2trn/-, said Mr Mayingu and saw it wise to provide training to retirees so that they could invest the money in small and medium industries, financial markets, agribusiness and entrepreneurship, among other opportunities.

In realising that Mr Mayingu said PSPF has liaised with Small Industries Development Organisation (Sido), to see on how the two institutions could work together to instil skills in the retirees to-be.

The objective is for Sido to carry out capacity building as well as getting equipment for the retirees for investment. “We have arrived at this because after making a follow-up we found out that some retirees engaged in businesses that they were not prepared for, as a result they lost all the money they earned as pension.

Those who chose well have better lives than even when they were employed,” said Mr Mayingu. Other stakeholders that PSPF would be cooperating with are financial institutions, organisations dealing with agriculture and trade.

He said that other stakeholders are banks such as National Microfinance Bank, CRDB Bank, Tanzania Postal Bank, Mwalimu Commercial Bank and organisations such as Unit Trust Tanzania (UTT), Balton TZ, Hitech, Business Registration and Licensing Agency (BRELA) and other service suppliers.