The Sunday Mail
Harmony Agere
THE National Social Security Authority (NSSA) has suspended the payment of pension pay-outs to close to 30 000 accounts following a clean-up exercise to weed out suspected ghost accounts.
The exercise is part of measures to streamline NSSA’s services for the benefit of pensioners.
In an interview with The Sunday Mail, NSSA board chair Dr Percy Toriro said the accounts were suspended following due diligence.
“We have embarked on a clean-up exercise. You may have noticed that we administered life certificates targeting 210 551 beneficiaries. Of these, 182 720 responded by completing the relevant documents.
“Those who did not respond had their pension suspended pending verification of their existence.
“It is a work in progress and the team is working hard to come up with a reliable member database.”
The affected accounts, he said, can always be reopened if beneficiaries prove they are still alive.
NSSA has for years been accused of having ghost accounts that remain functional despite the death of beneficiaries.
Normally, this happens when relatives of deceased members continue collecting pensions on their behalf.
Dr Toriro also said NSSA has disbursed $126 million in loans to assist pensioners start income-generating projects.
Further, the authority will be expanding its Mt Hampden solar power station from 2,5MW to 25MW.
“We are investing in alternative energy solutions that contribute to power generation. Zimbabwe has a huge deficit in power generation and all the asset classes that the authority invests in and can possibly invest in will not perform optimally if the power issue is not rectified.”
The NSSA board chair revealed that the authority is also venturing into agro value chains as well as infrastructure projects.
“We realise that agriculture is a stimulator of economic development, but, to a great extent, Zimbabwe currently does little beneficiation of its raw produce and hence there are big economic opportunities in value addition.
“We will be investing more in the agro value chain processes to get higher returns and contribute to value-addition in this sector.
“We will also invest in infrastructure projects, which will see the authority sweating some of its land banks and getting into mutually beneficial relationships with like-minded investment entities.”
