29/07/2024
NSSA STRIVES FOR SOCIAL SECURITY FOR ALL
By Happymore Chayira
The National Social Security Authority (NSSA) says it is currently tasked with ensuring that social security provisions become accessible to both the formal and informal sector employees in the country thereby bridging the currently existing social protection gaps between the two.
Speaking on the online launch of the IPEC/NSSA Journalists Mentorship Programme (JMP) 2024 earlier this month, NSSA Acting General Manager Dr. Charles Shava hinted that NSSA has already initiated steps towards establishing a pension cover scheme towards the informal sector, “…we have realized that upwards of 80% of our workers have moved into the informal sector and all those people that lose their jobs, they go to the informal sector as well as those who do not get jobs at all!”
He further confirmed that NSSA has already instituted a survey for initial assessment of the purported informal sector targeted scheme through ZimStats, “…we are at the survey stage where ZimStats is doing a survey so as to conduct a needs assessment analysis and thereafter NSSA will sit down and come up with a model that this particular informal scheme is going to take, certainly the issue of digital technology is also critical in establishing this kind of a scheme is critical and our ICT department is very much involved.” said Dr. Shava.
The NSSA Acting General Manager was responding to questions from journalists who had requested an update on the state of informal sector pension cover schemes in light of increasing calls to ensure that informal sector employees are considered for social security. This also served as a follow-up to the Micro-Pensions Framework launched in 2023 by the Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC) which is the regulatory body for insurance and pensions in the country.
Currently, NSSA only provides pension schemes and cover to formal sector employees and where there is a kind of contract of employment between the employer and the employee. This is because pension and insurance schemes in Zimbabwe are contribution-based during one’s time of employment and the formal sector presents fewer challenges to contributions collection. NSSA however is looking to leverage on digital technologies to facilitate the collection of contributions from the informal sector and this could be a potential game changer.
The National Social Security Authority (NSSA) was created by an Act of Parliament: The National Social Security Act (Chapter 17:04) of 1989. The Act empowers the Minister of Public Service, Labour, and Social Welfare to establish social security schemes for the provision of benefits to all employees. NSSA is mandated to administer every scheme and fund that is established in terms of this Act. At the moment NSSA is administering two pension schemes namely the Pension and Other Benefits Scheme and the Accident Prevention and Workers Compensation Scheme.
The Pension and Other Benefits Scheme is financed from equal monthly contributions by both employers and employees. It is the employer’s obligation to ensure that contributions are deducted and paid to NSSA. The contribution rate is 4.5% of the insurable earnings (employee) and 4.5% from the employer taking it to a total of 9% to be paid to the nearest NSSA office before the 1st of each month. For the Accident Prevention and Workers Compensation Scheme, the minimum insurance premium the employer is required to pay will be calculated using a risk factor depending on the type of industry the company is involved in. The insurance year runs from January 1st - December 31st of each year.
The provision of social security can be defined as instituting public policy measures intended to protect an individual in life situations or conditions in which his/her livelihood and well-being may be threatened, such as those engendered by sickness, workplace injuries, unemployment, invalidity, old age, retirement, and death or loss of a breadwinner. It ensures that individuals and families do not unexpectedly fall on hard times in the case of the unexpected happening or upon retirement.
Informal sector employees normally face the challenge of not having physical contracts, fixed monthly income, and job security issues among other concerns thereby presenting an enormous challenge to their social protection. In most cases when informal sector employees stop going to work due to either illness or injury among other unpredictable mishaps, their lives are thrown into disarray with an immediate loss of income and an inability to meet their hospital bills and other living expenses.
International Labour Organization Conventions and United Nations Instruments recognize social protection as a basic human right and should be available to all. Damning statistics however reveal that only one in five people in the world has adequate social security coverage and more than half of the world’s population lacks any type of social protection. In middle-income countries, social security coverage generally ranges from 20% to 60% of the population. As Zimbabwe moves towards attaining upper-middle income status by the year 2030 through Vision 2030, NSSA also endeavors to leave no one and no place behind.
*Picture Credit - Dr. Charles Shava NSSA Acting General Manager
