Angola's insurance industry is calling for the creation of open pension funds and expanded financial literacy programmes to bring informal-sector workers into the retirement savings system, with Nossa Seguros's head of life and pension products leading the charge.
Albertina Napita, Director of Life and Pension Funds at Nossa Seguros, made the case on Friday in Luanda, on the sidelines of the third edition of the Pension Fund Forum, arguing that existing mechanisms fall far short of the country's needs given the scale of informal economic activity.
Speaking to journalists at the event, Napita stressed the importance of promoting inclusion-focused initiatives targeting universities, with the aim of encouraging young Angolans to plan for retirement from an early age.
Among the instruments she highlighted, open pension funds stood out as particularly suited to Angola's labour market. Unlike occupational schemes tied to formal employment, open funds allow self-employed workers and those in the informal sector to participate on their own terms.
Under such arrangements, she explained, contributors can set their own contribution levels in line with their individual savings capacity, rather than being bound by fixed employer-employee contribution structures.
As a practical illustration, Napita cited the example of a person earning 30,000 kwanzas a month who could choose to channel 10,000 kwanzas regularly into a pension fund — a modest but consistent commitment that compounds over time.
Contributions made to the fund would subsequently be invested and managed by the fund administrator to generate returns, she said, with the objective of providing workers with a supplementary pension on retirement, on top of any state benefit to which they may be entitled.
Napita also highlighted the complementary role that pension funds can play alongside Angola's mandatory social protection system, specifically the National Social Security Institute (INSS). By broadening the retirement savings base, private pension funds could help reduce pressure on the state scheme while strengthening the overall financial security of workers in old age.
The challenge is made more acute, she noted, by the sheer weight of the informal sector in the Angolan economy, which structurally limits the proportion of the workforce able to contribute to the INSS and access its benefits upon retirement.
Napita therefore argued that creating viable alternatives for informal workers to build retirement protection was not merely desirable but necessary — a policy gap that properly designed open funds could help close.
The third edition of the Pension Fund Forum was held under the theme 'How to Mainstream Retirement Savings?' and was organised by Revista Economia e Mercado, a financial and business publication.
The event brought together national and international specialists to examine strategies for diversifying pension revenue streams and broadening the culture of retirement saving across Angola.
Discussions centred on four interconnected pillars: financial inclusion, financial literacy, trust in pension institutions, and the development of savings solutions tailored to the diverse realities of Angola's workers and companies.
Source: ANGOP / Original article: https://www.angop.ao/noticias/economia/gestora-quer-criacao-de-mecanismos-para-adesao-aos-fundos-de-pensoes/
