Acting as a forum for all groups with a direct involvement in retirement schemes and to provide a general means of consultation and discussion between the different disciplines…
What We Do?
The Botswana Pensions Society is a non-profit making corporate body registered in 1994.
Their objectives include acting as a forum for all groups with a direct involvement in retirement schemes and to provide a general means of consultation and discussion between the different disciplines represented in the industry on matters of common concern.
The Society acts as a lobby group in respect of any legislative or other matter which affects the retirement industry; it promotes awareness amongst members as to their rights and responsibilities and demonstrates the benefit of retirement schemes to employees, employers and to the economy of Botswana.
The main information sharing events are the Annual Conference, which attracts all industry players and has been running consistently since 2006, the Trustee Seminars and the Member Awareness Seminars which were held mainly outside Gaborone where access to information tends to be limited. This latter event was introduced in 2008 and the areas that were covered to date include Francistown, Maun, Ghanzi, Gaborone, Palapye, Selebi-Phikwe, Tsabong, Kang, and Hukuntsi. However, of late this event has not been held as originally designed, pending restructuring of this type of activity. Instead, the Society has recently embarked on television shows and newspaper articles to educate members and the general public, countrywide.
Advisory
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Education
Lobbying
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Communications
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The main purpose of a retirement fund is to provide you with benefits when you can no longer provide for yourself financially or to provide benefits to your dependants following an untimely death. It provides an income when one can no longer be employed and is payable from the date of retirement until death.
The late 1700’s saw the developments of the Industrial Revolution.Industries were hungry for people to come and work thus causing a rural-urban shift in employment patterns. There was the move from subsistence to cash economy and the resultant need for income in old age.
The period of more than fifty years of Independence achieved by Botswana is also a reminder of in excess of fifty years away from the pre-cash economy when subsistence farmers reared livestock and tilled the land. Families were characterized by many children to provide labour on the farms and care, when older, for their aged parents.
Similar to the developed world, Botswana has witnessed a gradual move from subsistence to a cash economy. The traditional rural family support structures have been abandoned. Aged parents have to look to the government for support as urban children (faced with high costs of urban lifestyles) fail to provide any support.
With little training in money management workers spend their working lives accumulating very little and having insufficient savings for retirement. The government then realized the need for the provision of long term security for workers, through institutionalized savings, having worked the whole of their lives in the cash economy.
The development of the Retirement Funds Industry in Botswana by the government was necessitated by a need to provide solutions to the challenges faced by Batswana in their old age.
The licensing of retirement funds (i.e. pension and provident funds) is a statutory requirement to enable the Government to monitor the funds/schemes for the protection of their members. Once licensed a retirement fund attains its own legal status from that of the employer and can sue or be sued.
The Board of Trustees, comprising both management and staff representatives, is elected to manage and monitor the progress of the fund. They are responsible for the appointment and removal of service providers depending on their performance.
Retirement Plans
It’s all too common for people to assume they are too young to begin saving or underestimate the amount they need to save. In reality, you can never save too much or too soon. Gain insight.
The Industry
Members are the whole reason behind retirement funds. It is their details that are recorded, their contributions that are received and their assets that are invested. There are many players in the industry.
You & Your Retirement Plans
Many people are dependent on their company retirement fund for their future financial well-being. For most people, their retirement funds totally represents their biggest saving they ever had
Legislation
The retirement funds industry is governed by the Non-Bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA) Act, the Retirement Funds Act, the Income Tax Act and the Financial Intelligence Act.
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