The Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) has paid out N$20 billion in the last five years to its beneficiaries, Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila has revealed.
The Fund provides retirement and ancillary benefits to approximately 98,000 members of the civil service and others serving in public institutions.
“The Fund also provides monthly annuity payments to over 48,000 annuitants who are pensioners and or dependents of former members, who rely on this monthly income to sustain their livelihoods,” she said in her address at the launch of the GIPF strategic plan for the 2023-2026 period on Wednesday.
The Prime Minister said the Fund has invested about 50% of its Fund value in Namibia, equating to approximately N$75 billion.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said the investment makes the GIPF the largest investor in the Namibian economy, and also compliant with the Pension Fund Act and Regulation.
“I am glad to note that the Fund is a catalyst of growth of our economy, bringing an investor in infrastructure, housing, renewable energy and other strategic sectors of our economy, and its investments provide financial and social returns to Namibia.
“I am informed that in terms of the GIPF 2023-2026 corporate strategy, the Fund has set itself out to be a member-focused and globally leading Pension Fund, under the theme “deepening our strategy towards member centricity” the Premier added.
Meanwhile, GIPF changed its five-year strategic plan to a three-year plan for the period of 2023-2026 in a bid to mitigate the external volatility of international markets and their influences.
During an analysis of key source documents, Desmond Nikanor, the Manager for strategy at GIPF highlighted some of the 14 strategic issues.
“Benefit adequacy benefit design, member and stakeholder engagement and satisfaction, liquidity profile for the medium to long term, firm readiness, cost to serve methodology, organisational culture, maintenance and management funding level, digital transformation and automation, ethics institutionalisation, optimal utility of internal staff capacity, FIM implementation and compliance, financial analytics and modeling,” he noted.
Furthermore, he said two of these key strategic issues were identified as cross-cutting issues that shall underpin the pillars of the strategic plan, member centricity and shared value.
Nikanor said “the 14 key strategic issues were grouped into four thematic areas which informed the formulation of the GIPF strategic pillars namely; member centricity, sustainability, outcomes-based governance, risk and compliance, and organisational and employee capacity”.
