SKC to leverage Pension, Bank Funds to fund Malawi development projects: ‘Avoid defeatist attitude’
Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima (SKC) has said his United Transformational Movement (UTM) will leverage billions of idle funds in Pension funds and banks to national development projects if ushered into power during the May 21 2019 Tripartite Election.
Chilima said this at a UTM rally he addressed at Ntcheu Secondary School ground on Sunday, saying they will enact laws to enable use of the Pension Fund to support businesses and create jobs for so that the fund benefits majority of Malawians than the current status where the money is lying idle or benefiting only a few through bonuses.
“Current laws may make it difficult to access pension’s funds for development and as such we will put parliament to work to ensure laws are conducive to make these funds accessible,” he said.
Chilima said funds for financing UTM development agenda are already available in Malawi.
“I have told you where the billions are lying idle so go ahead and steal the idea but rest assured the people know who to vote for as they know where they heard it first,” he said referring to other political parties that had been saying that UTM development agenda is untenable due to limited financial envelop.
Chilima urged Malawians to optimistic and not pessimistic if the country is to move forward.
The Vice President, who previously worked in the private sector including Unilever, Carlsberg Malawi, and rose to become the first Malawian managing director of Airtel Malawi limited, talked of fresh start to revive Malawi economy
He mentioned several prominent local businesspersons, including Lambart’s Variety Centre, Mike Mlomba of Countrywide Car Hire, Thom Mpinganjira of FDH Financial Holdings and Zagaf Transport, saying they took off from humble beginnings but developed their potential in their business establishment.
Chilima said Malawians should avoid defeatist attitude, insisting that UTM will create one million jobs within 12 months spearheaded by youth-led cooperatives.
He dwelt much of the speech outlining UTM agenda, saying the movement was born out of a strong desire to see a better Malawi for everyone.
“UTM has come not to seek power, but to seek legitimacy and political space to transform Malawi. To create a Malawi that is free of corruption, nepotism and tribalism, a Malawi with new and progressive politics and with strong foundation for sustainable development,” he said.
He said currently there is wanton plunder of resources being perpetrated by the current regime and that nepotism in public appointments has now become their mainstay.
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Chilima ndi anzake zoona kuyika plan up up to mudzatiberenso pension? Ma salary anthu ngochepa and amakulipira iweyo akatidula misonkho……
Umbava mudzapangenso pa pension….a Malawi chenjerani
Please someone tell SKC that he is not the first one to suggest the idea of using pension fund for development. Some of us have heard and proposed this idea long time ago here in Malawi and also outside of it. In fact Nigeria’s former head of State Olusegun Obasanjo has always been a vocal advocate of this idea. To claim that he is the first to say it is a TOTAL LIE and please he must not take us for a ride. He should also be told that a lot of Malawians are more intelligent and wise than him. And please SKC should learn to acknowledge in his speeches the people whose ideas he has copied from. Most of the stuff he is saying seem to have been copied from Dr. Mathews Chikaonda 10 point plan.
It is very pathetic that the whole vice president is advocating for things that are not practical. For instance he says powers shud be equal both to the incumbent president and his vice; what a shame a chilima. This really shows ali khandadi pandale you see is failing to tell malawians what is going to do. Today he wakes up and say this tomorrow he says that uuuuuuh abale anga inu mwapita ku Ukhanda Toto Mmalawi(UTM) tangobwerankoni because akupusitsani akuluwa. He only has power hungry and you the catholic bishops whom you are favouring khanda lanuli pls advise him accordingly otherwise will just confuse malawians. It is good to note that ukhandadi ukuwonekera so that malawians shud believe what APM, JB and Chakwera says.
If you Retire today you will only get 40 % of your Pension.The 60% will be paid to you Monthly Until You Die.Already most Employees are not happy with this Arrangement considering the Low Salaries Malawians get.Ndiye mukuti 60%yo mufuna muyiyikeso pa Risk.Khaya tiziona, zikazatobedwa Tizabweza ndi Misonkho yathu.
Mr. Vice President, I am pretty certain that you have friends who are top notch economists and finance experts. Please consult them before you spew dangerous policy proposals and stop being a knoe-it-all.
There are ways to meanifully utilize pension funds but not in the fashion proposed herein. Pension funds must always be safe and secure and you can’t afford to use them for risky investments like they are venture capital funds .
At least you are showing that you are thinking something but in it’s current form, you are proposing a poker game on pension funds .
Start thinking how you can mobilize savings from the diaspora through something like a diaspora bond etc. Start thinking of how you can establish a sovereign wealth fund.
UKAKHALA CHUMBA /GOCHO
USAMADANA NKUCHINDA /UKWA
TA KAPENA UCHEMBERE
Such bravery is what we need in Malawi, people who are risk takers and in such uncharted territories is where big dreamers flourish because the mind is opened to bring in new ideas of how to make what you do work for the betterment of the land. i tell you where such high risk funds are at stake you would seal any loop hole where the funds may leak. see the bigger picture and let the money start to work instead of it just sitting there.
Bakili promised same way and we know how he goofed. Sitizanamizidwanso…..
Mwalonjeza too many things…. yes it’s good to dream in colour but this is too much:
1. Bullet train
2. 1million jobs in 12months
3. Thousands of factories
4. Vice president equal to President or remove vice presidency.
5. Fliers in cities
6. School fees for all children
7. Universities in all districts
8. Arrest all thieves including those stealing other pipo ideas.
Removal of vice presidency is creation of dictatorship…better think other way round…
Pension funds are administered by the company. If government wants to legislate that and say should be used for development projects I foresee a problem. Government can just regulate but can not direct where they should go. Pension funds are supposed to be invested so that they grow and the pensioners can access the funds. Unless you are saying government will be borrowing the pension funds and paying back with interest. Pensions are very sensitive you dont want people retiring orl businesses closing and there are no funds available. Maybe play around with the civil servants pensions since thats a 130,000 plus work force. In fact the problem in Malawi is not pension funds lying idle. I think thats a stretch, NICO, Old Mutual etc are embarking on investment projects with pension funds. The problem is most organizations not remitting pension deductions to Pension fund administrators.
Ndalama za penjeni amatidula pamwezi kuti tikapuma pantchito ine ndi banja langa kuoapo chozipepesela. Ndiye muti UTM akuzipagira mapulani oti ajazidye bwanji? Do not toch this one. Pezani zina zokopera anthu. Penjeni yangayi isiyeni.
kkkkk
You can’t pussyfoot around with someone’s pension. You are already collecting peoples taxes (more than 30% of earned income) which is far much more than the 5% monthly pension deductions, you can not also take peoples pension and invest it in a road, that is like government crowding out private investors from access to credit facilities (which are guaranteed through secured pension managers investments). Governments and money should not be within the same bracket, its always dangerous, governments are there for policy issues basi, not screwing around with peoples investments.
For the most part, this socialist suggestion is the most dangerous outrageous dimwit idea I have heard thus far. You can’t have governments monkeying around with peoples pensions when the pension was meant to be the most secure savings fund governed by the RBM as a regulator. This means that the UTM leader whats government to run on borrowed pension funds and we know how difficult it is for governments to pay back the money.
Pensions are savings for working individuals and the current arrangement is working. No government should dip its fingers in such pots. No government should manage or squander nobody’s pension funds, please.
These are very scary line of thoughts being perpetuated here. I hope you guys have financial analysts and advisors who are advising you on these things.
Planning to run a country on peoples pension? Come on Malawi. Come up with a think tank, for people to look at these things and then pronounce refined ideas before spewing such half cooked conman ideas.
Investing in an infrastructure that can not bring back the profits, koma ma policy enawa eeish. Babysitter ikufunika kkkk
Eti akulu, are we serious zoona? This is as good as telling people kuti we intend to borrow more than ever before. The only difference is that this time around we are going to even put your pension fund at risk. I hear all the time people complaining kuti government is borrowing too much from the money market and commercial banks, I wonder how this is any different from issuing treasury bills and or government bonds.
We need to hear how they will generate funds not how they will screw us over ayi
I don’t any of you have any idea of what Chilima is talking about. Pension funds are supposed to invested in long-term investment vehicles. Currently, this is not happening. Companies like Old Mutual, Nico, etc just invest these funds in Treasury Bills, Bonds and Shares. These investment they have very little impact in terms of spearheading developments. There is need to come up with deliberate legislation that is going to force these companies to invest in infrastructure such as high rising skyscrapers in our cities or modern housing infrastructure in our towns and cities. Example is National Bank Pension Fund was used to build the magnificent Head Office in Blantyre. Old Mutual is currently building in the process of building hostels in our constituent colleges of the university of Malawi. This is what Chilima is talking about. There is need to do more. Nico built Chichiri Shopping Mall and Lilongwe Game Shopping partly with pension funds. Don’t just comment for the sake of commenting. Please come up with solid arguments that are going to take this country forward. Pessimism is not going to take us anyway. Chilima ndi yanza. Akundikumbutsa Kamuzu. When he wanted to do things for this country he was always optimistic and he never faltered. Otherwise with the way he found this country he could have not done anything. Because even the whites were discouraging him that he cannot do anything.
Running government is a serious business indeed, there is sense in what you are saying, but open your eyes. Government should never be an administrator of pension funds. Government projects are non profit in making. Building roads, hospitals, bridges etc to serve the people where you do not expect revenue. Leave pension fund to proper administrators who are in the business, encourage them to do meaningful developments yes but not government projects to rely on pension funds…what a shameful policy
Tsegukani maso a Malawi. Why can’t you use the pension funds as investiment to build for instance an area 18 or 15 like housing project. You can then sale the houses or even rent the out. That way you can build houses on the cheap, because you are building many at once, you can empty people, you can increase the housing stock in Lilongwe and people will live in better houses. That’s what they do in most of these advanced economies. All we know is to go and beg donors for a project. We don’t have our own ideas. I think Chilima is thinking outside the box, something we don’t do well in Malawi
Govenrment should never be an administrator of pension fund…………
Pension funds should also be easily accesible by the retiree. A person must be able to access his pension immediately he has retired. We need to remove the condition which requires a person who has left employment to apply to access his pension contribution after 6 months. A person should also be allowed to access the whole lot of his pension funds if he wishes. The current pension law treat the retirees as Slaves of Government.
We already serve the govt by paying PAYE and other taxes introduced by the same government to manage its social responsibility and by snatching our pensions is the most evil thing any govt can do. If that has worked in other countries it can not work in Malawi because very few are able to own a house while working because of meagre salaries Malawian companies pay hence they need the same pension to build one.
Could work, but it also puts the funds at risk.
The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) in South Africa recently lost huge amounts of cash running in billions of rands (mainly from the Government Employees Pension Fund) because of certain poor investments. At the end of the day, if done without due diligence, the poor hard-working people paying into these pension funds risk losing their lifetime investments and may end up with nothing.
Just a word of caution.
PENSION FUND SHOULD BE ACCESSED NOW WHILE YOU ARE IN GOVERNMENT……. AS THE STATE VICE PRESIDENT PLEASE MAKE SURE THINGS ARE OKEY NOW…… IF YOU WANT US TO BELIEVE IN YOU>>
Obviously Goodwall Gondwe can’t allow him hes Dpp and listens to peter only! the Veep office is puppet he cant even control the IG or Amry late alone ACB director!! Atleast hes telling us how things should have been done for a effect and efficient running of govt affairs!
I totally agree. Pension funds needs to be accessible but they have to be sound measures put in place
Not to be borrowed by govt as it will be abused by cash gaters leaving bonafide citizens with problems to access their own funds
How different is this from the government issuing bonds or treasury bills? This is just borrowing period. The only difference with the current domestic borrowing is that this will put pension funds at risk and more importantly government crowding out local productive companies hence being inflationary and increase in the policy and interbank rates.
The only ones who should access pension funds are the people that put in their funds and not some fat cat at capital hill
A GREAT THINKER HAS SPOKEN