BY FIDELITY MHLANGA IN NYANGA The Zimbabwe Association of Pension Funds (ZAPF) 46th annual conference kicked off on Monday in Nyanga with speakers addressing pertinent issues affecting the pension industry.
The three-day conference is being held under the theme: Closing the savings gap-restoration of confidence in the pensions industry.
Key speakers have been drawn from Insurance Pensions Commission, Zimbabwe Anti –Corruption Commission, Labour and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe and financial institutions among others. Finance deputy minister Clemence Chiduwa is the conference guest of honour.
Delivering a welcome address at the conference ZAPF chairman Rutendo Magorimbo said there was need to build confidence in the pension industry.
“The understanding that your children will take care of you no longer applies. Zimbabwe has complex issues. Because of the collapse of the currency in 2008 many people lost confidence in long term savings. Tragically, they are now reliving the repeated horror,” Magorimbo said.
“Our nation has witnessed two devastasting inflationary periods in a short space of less than 15 years. It is understandable that an average Zimbabwean citizen shun long term savings offered by investment savings platforms including pensions and insurance funds, trusts and banks.
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It’s only through statutory rules that any meaningful savings are mobilised. The aftermath of 2008 has brought a skeptical generation because of what they hear from the generation that was affected by economic decline. Public confidence is key in enabling the industry to mobilise the much needed funds to help rebuild the Zimbabwe economy. Unless we address the destruction of confidence in long term savings our economic future is doomed,” Magorimbo said.