Margaret Mupisira
A mere 2.1 million Zimbabweans from a population of 16,9 million are subscribed to pension and insurance services in the country, according to the Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC).
The low subscription levels have been attributed to a general lack of knowledge on the benefits and importance of being insured, or being subscribed to a pension plan.
“The primary pillar of consumer protection is financial literacy, particularly an awareness of the elementary principles and states that governs the buying, selling or servicing insurance and pension products,” said Blessing Kazengura, IPEC’s acting commissioner of Insurance, Pension and Provident Funds.
“To us there is no better way to protect consumers of financial products than imparting adequate knowledge regarding product features, their terms and conditions, consumer rights, obligations and responsibility.”
To this extent, IPEC partnered with insurance products aggregator ZimSelector.com to train reporters on covering insurance and pension issues.
There has been notable poor coverage of insurance and pension issues in both public and private media in the past.
IPEC has urged media practitioners to uphold ethical standard always in disseminating information.
Addressing participants at 3rd Annual Insurance and Pensions Journalist Mentorship Programme recently, Kazengura said the journalist mentorship programme came after an observation that “only few articles would appear in the press as the majority of journalist shunned insurance and pension issues. Some of those few published articles would have some inaccuracies.”
Media practitioners were called to adhere to their mandate through educating and informing the public on the significance of insurance and pension.
Thus the media as key social institutions can help in disseminating information to the general public to reduce ignorance on such matters. An ethical journalistic practice and investigative journalism can help change the public perception on insurance and pensions reporting through awareness aimed to empower the public with pension an insurance knowledge.
Meanwhile, discussion at the mentorship programme also revealed that the some among the general public are unaware of their rights to claim their pension.
Official figures show that currently there is a total $30 million in pensions benefits which have not been claimed.
“We also have about 50 000 pensioners and beneficiaries who have not been claiming their pension benefits to a tune of $30 million.
“Such beneficiaries of unclaimed benefits could be living in poverty yet they have money lying idle at the pension funds.”
Kazengura said it was the media’s duty to assist organizations such as IPEC in informing and educating the public on such issues.
Insurance and pensions programmes provide its members with numerous social benefits such as to avoid current or future economic and social distress considering the current economic crisis being experienced in Zimbabwe for the past two decades.
Causes of poverty can be due to stoppage of substantial reduction of earnings resulting from invalidity, old-age, death of a bread winner, sickness, maternity, employment injury or unemployment.
Social security is a basic human right.
Social security is stated as a human right in Articles 22 & 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). The SADC Code on Social Security (article 4) declares that everyone in SADC has the right to social security.
Additionally, the Constitution of Zimbabwe Chapter 2 Section 30 compels the state to take measures to provide social security and social care to those who are in need.
The International Labour Organization’s Social Security Minimum Standards, Convention No. 102 highlights that each person has a right to social security benefits that includes unemployment, maternity, sickness, medical aid, old age, family allowances, employment injury, invalidity grants and family allowances.
The presence of insurance and pensions industry can assist in poverty reduction in Zimbabwe particularly targeting the old age and those underprivileged considering that social security schemes are the biggest tool used to fighting poverty within the informal sector.
“Given that social security schemes are important tools for fighting poverty, informal sector workers, who constitute 94.5% of the country’s labour force, are in dire need of social security cover” said Shepherd Muperi, National Social Security Authority (NSSA) Chief Social Security Officer.