During the sidelines of Nico Life Insurance 2019 annual trustee seminar in Lilongwe, the firm’s Chief Executive Officer, Eric Chapola, said that delays in remitting pension contributions to pension administrators denies the employees’ right and chance to earn interest on their income.

In July this year, figures from the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) showed that the pension assets have increased 10 times from K74.8 billion in 2011 to K757.4 billion in March 2019. Following the development, RBM released a statement, threatening to name and shame the companies that hadn’t settled their pension areas. The Registrar of Financial Solutions, Dalitso Kabambe, released a list of companies with arrears.

Fast forward to months later, Chapola says late remittance of pension contributions negatively affects the pensioners’ economic livelihood. “The impact is that the pension funds will not be earning an interest. Secondly, when somebody makes a claim, the pension administrators will not be able to pay,” he said.