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{
"id": 1201167,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1201167/?format=api",
"text_counter": 247,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13162,
"legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
"slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
},
"content": "We asked ourselves whether in our assessment of savings, we are only focusing on the formal and forgetting about the informal. Where I come from, our people save in form of livestock. I schooled from the proceeds of livestock. Whatever little thing my father built, either rental or commercial properties, was simply because he kept cattle. At maturity, he would send us to the market to liquidate cattle and convert to cash. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are those of us from Northern Kenya who own herds of camels. They might be wealthier than many of us who keep money in commercial banks and in fixed deposits. One camel is probably Kshs150,000. When you see those people walk around with the camels, you might look down upon them but, perhaps, they have got more wealth than you. Savings is not just about what is in the bank. The President brought this conversation about the informal economy and the hustlers. Therefore, we must look beyond what is sitting with custodians, the pension funds and with the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Kshs6,000 matched with Kshs2,000 shillings at the end of the year sounds very sexy. However, if you break it down, that is Kshs8,000 in a year. In 20 years, this Kshs8,000 will be Kshs160,000 as a pension benefit to that individual. What can that do? When we go to our constituencies, Kshs160,000 is what you spend in two churches. It sounds very nice that the President and the nation will contribute to match Kshs2,000 to every Kshs6,000 paid at the end of the year. However, this is not enough. I want the President to look at the regulatory framework that governs the financial services sector particularly the pension sector. I spent a few years in that sector. I recall there is a time the industry came out with a product called the Mbao Pension Plan. It was an idea to build the Jua Kali sector into the formal pensions sector. The Jua Kali people would contribute Kshs20 daily using a mobile App. Since 2018, the success of Mbao Pension Plan has been affected by a number of issues. If we allow our young people in the gig economy to come up with innovations similarly to the ones they have come up with in the banking and the mobile lending sector, we must look at the various bodies that have been set up to regulate the pensions and savings sector. Insurance companies provide pensions’ products. They are regulated by the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA). There is the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) and the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) with its own regulator. There is a fourth regulator, SACCO Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA), which regulates Savings and Credit Co-operative Societies (SACCOS), who offer another avenue for savings. There are about five if not six regulators in that space. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, why can we not streamline the roles of these regulators, so that they provide one combined product? This product can capture pensions, SACCOS and life insurance product. We can then allow our innovators to come up with quick products rather than matching Kshs2,000 to Kshs6,000. I agree with the President that this is urgent and important. However, I encourage him and his policy makers to think broadly how to bring into the formal economy, the livestock owners and the farmer in Kitale with several bags of maize harvest. We came"
}