Ezulwini – The National Provident Fund (ENPF) is looking beyond traditionally employed workers to expand pension participation, with voluntary contributions offering self-employed and informal-sector workers an opportunity to build retirement savings while growing the pool of domestic long-term capital.
ENPF General Manager, Investments Phesheya Dlamini said the fund’s voluntary contribution facility allows people who are not required to contribute under statutory employment arrangements to make contributions towards their retirement.
“Voluntary actually says you can contribute even if you are not obligated to be a member,” Dlamini said.
He was speaking against the backdrop of growing calls for Eswatini to mobilise more domestic institutional capital for investment at the Fifth Annual Eswatini Institutional Investment Forum at Happy Valley Hotel, Ezulwini. Pension assets in the country have grown to about E55.8 billion, highlighting the significant role retirement savings can play in providing long-term capital to the economy.
Dlamini said individuals outside formal employment could make lump-sum contributions through the facility, while existing members could also contribute above the statutory requirement.
The initiative potentially opens another avenue for entrepreneurs, self-employed workers and other people earning income outside conventional employment structures to participate in formal retirement savings.
For the economy, increasing pension participation could have implications beyond retirement security, as a larger savings base provides institutional investors with more capital that can potentially be deployed into productive investments.
However, Dlamini cautioned that ENPF’s ability to introduce or expand products is governed by its legal mandate.
“As a fund, we’re actually chartered by the 1974 Act, which actually guides us in terms of what we can do and what we cannot do,” he said.
The issue of expanding pension participation comes as policymakers and institutional investors increasingly examine how domestic savings can be channelled into economic growth without compromising the interests of pension members.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Neal Rijkenberg told the fifth annual Eswatini Institutional Investment Forum in Ezulwini that pension assets had reached approximately E55.8 billion, equivalent to about 57 per cent of the country’s GDP.
Rijkenberg argued that the size of the pension industry makes it an important source of long-term capital, but warned that retirement savings should not be treated as an extension of Government finances.
“Pension money is not public money. It is not a government cheque book,” he said.
The Minister said institutional investors should consider productive local investments, provided these met commercial and governance standards.
He stressed that investments could support development without requiring pension funds to sacrifice returns or compromise their fiduciary responsibilities.
“Developmental investment must never mean concessionary investment. Local investment must never mean low-quality investment,” Rijkenberg said.
He said government’s role should instead be to create investment-ready opportunities through policy certainty, credible project preparation, transparent procurement and predictable regulation.
The developments point to a dual challenge for Eswatini’s pension industry, increasing the number of people participating in formal retirement savings while ensuring that the growing asset base is invested in opportunities capable of generating sustainable returns.
For Rijkenberg, the objective is therefore not to direct pension funds into projects simply because they are considered developmental, but to ensure that projects are sufficiently attractive and commercially sound to compete for institutional capital.
“Our ambition is not to force capital into development. Our ambition is to make development worthy of capital,” he said.
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