By Nicholas Manduku
The pensioner top players and trustees call for more funds to buy many properties from pension fund.
For more than a decade, Kenyans have had the leeway to use up to 60 percent of their accrued retirement benefits as a guarantee for mortgage loans.
Using a huge chunk of the pension while out of work to buy a house has sunk many individuals into misery partly because of the steep cost of construction.
However, a study by the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) shows that less than 0.1 percent of members of retirement benefits schemes have taken advantage of the provision.
Speaking during the 2nd Annual and International Conference in recreating sustainable pension plan in Kenya ,Mr.Hosea Kilii the chairman of Association for Pensions Trustees and Administrators of Kenya (APTAK) said that there is elicited excitement from pensioners where 68 percent of the respondents in the same survey by the RBA indicated a willingness to take advantage of the pension trustees.
At the moment Kenya has registed over 7milion pensioners but the worry is only 3 million are active basis,whereous the remaining numbers are not active.
Mr. Killi said that means that there is a need to public participation and sensitisation and recreating better practices to achieve the sustainable goals.
The conference was attended by different secorts including Banks,private entities,Technology companies as well as consultancy companies.
Pension schemes work by a contribution of funds daily, monthly, or even once and upon maturity, you are paid a lump sum or on a monthly basis.
Kenya’s best pension schemes include those for KCB, Jubilee Insurance, Britam, and Boresha.
APTAK has promise to ensure trustees get the liquid-money for short and long investment and anybody withdrawing from the pool ought to have documentation that the money is enough to buy a ready-to-occupy house.
There is a need to insist that the money deliver a habitable structure.