NIF climbs to $175b
Published:Wednesday | January 10, 2024 | 12:05 AM
The National Insurance Fund, NIF, the source from which public pension payments are made, was now valued at around $175 billion in fiscal 2023.
The figure, though subject to audit verification, is a significant improvement over the $143 billion reported at March 2022, Ministry of Labour and Social Security sources have said.
The increase was not due to fund growth from investment income, but to “an increase in net contributions”.
The NIF is in charge of investing the contributions of employers and employees to the National Insurance Scheme.
Some 25,903 new persons were registered as contributors to the NIS scheme, whereas 9,500 new persons received benefits.
The labour ministry otherwise reported that it extended upwards of $6 billion to vulnerable citizens through its social security division portfolio programmes, inclusive of PATH or the Programme of Advancement through Health and Education, the Early Stimulation Programme, the Social Intervention Programme, the STEPS to Work Programme aligned to PATH and the National Insurance Scheme.
Under PATH $6.03 billion was disbursed. The social pension programme, which now has 14,657 participants, disbursed pension payments totalling some $306.95 million to elderly citizens.