Kampala — The Uganda Retirement Benefits Regulatory Authority (URBRA) will on November 27th - 28th host the 4th Annual Africa Pension Supervisors' Association (APSA) Conference at the Serena Kampala Hotel.
APSA is a platform that brings together pension industry regulators and supervisors from across the continent. The Association seeks to enhance pension supervision and regulation by providing a platform for collaboration, co-operation and exchange of information and ideas to better supervise, regulate and grow the pension sector on the continent.
"URBRA is privileged to host the 4th APSA Annual Conference, which coincides with our own Annual Pension Symposium. It will enable Ugandan Pension Sector Players to learn from the ideas and experiences of colleagues from other parts of the world. The conference will have lasting positive impact on the retirement benefits sector and the country as a whole," Martin Nsubuga, URBRA's CEO said in Kampala, today, as he launched the programme that will lead up to the conference due next month.
Morocco, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Burundi, Namibia, Botswana, Egypt, Mauritius, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia collaborate under APSA to deliver on a commitment to a healthy financial future for their citizens. This collaboration provides the impetus needed to unlock the potential of the pension sector in the continent
"This conference exemplifies URBRA's and APSA's commitment to collaborate and network with sector stakeholders for purposes of knowledge sharing, joint learning and leveraging our innovative practices, " Nsubuga stressed.
The 2023 APSA Conference will bring together a diverse audience of over 100 public and private sector stakeholders from Africa and beyond to discuss strategies to make pension and retirement benefits more inclusive, to alleviate old-age poverty. Under the theme Sustainable Pension Inclusion in Africa, the conference will discuss ways of achieving sustained voluntary retirement saving by non-salaried workers with modest, intermittent incomes.
Addressing the press at the launch at URBRA headquaters in Kampala, Nsubuga observed that many Ugandans were still excluded from the existing retirement benefits arrangements, with just over three million savers registered, compared to a working population of over 20 million people. At a continental level, about 600 million young economically active informal sector workers across Africa are excluded from formal pension and social protection arrangements and face the grim prospect of living in extreme poverty for over 20 years after they are too old to work.
Register on our website to attend the 4th Annual APSA Conference, hosted by the @urbraUg Uganda Retirement Benefits Regulatory Authority. APSA gives African Pension regulators a voice in the global arena. Come and make you voice heard! #APSACONF23 @FSDAfrica @pinBoxSolutions pic.twitter.com/d71VMg06rX
-- Africa Pension Supervisors Association (APSA) (@ApsaAfrica) October 29, 2023
Nsubuga mentioned some of the key factors that perpetuate the exclusion of Ugandans from retirement saving including: high unemployment and poverty rates; digital inequality where rapid digitization of services has left many people behind; irregular remittance of contributions by non-compliant employers; and inadequate savings which can barely cover retirement requirements like health care, decent shelter and reliable cashflow.
"Experts recommend that one needs up to 70% of their pre-retirement monthly income to sustain the life they led prior to retirement. But in Africa and Uganda, those that are saving are not saving enough due to low and infrequent contributions. Judging by the contribution to mandatory schemes, which is only 15% of one's monthly gross earnings, many people's retirement income may not meet the recommended 70% replacement ratio," Nsubuga revealed.
He further observed that many women also face a level of exclusion from retirement benefits arrangements since there are fewer women in employment compared to men. According to Uganda Bureau of Statistics, even when formally employed, women tend to concentrate in less-paying service work and elementary occupations rather than highly-paid professional work and key positions such as CEOs and senior officials, which has implications for their retirement benefits.
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"The only way to alleviate this trend of exclusion is to build inclusive mechanisms and pension systems that provide citizens with secure, accessible, affordable and well-regulated pension and retirement benefits products," Nsubuga recommended.
In that regard, he said, the APSA conference will be an opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences between delegates from within Africa and from countries across Asia, Latin America and Europe.
Participants will include policymakers, regulators, senior government officials, private sector actors, financial inclusion stakeholders, pension sector thought leaders, senior economists among other experts.
The APSA Conference 2023 is supported by FSD Africa, and PinBox Solutions, as well as Prudential Assurance Uganda and Sanlam Investments East Africa.
