The Fiji National Provident Fund has today revealed that more than 75 percent of their current members have less than $10,000 thousand dollars in the account.
While presenting their Annual Report at the Standing Committee on Social Affairs, FNPF says they still face challenges.
It is the reality with what the Fiji National Provident Fund is facing.
Majority of its members will retire from their work with little in their account.
“There are still a lot of members with very low balances only 4% of our members have balances above $50,000, 75% of our members have balances below $10,000 this is a huge dilemma that we need to address and 27% of this is in the age of above 45 which means that there is very little that we can do to ensure that they can retire with adequate Balance to look after them.” said Jaoji Koroi Chief Operating Officer.
The Fiji National Provident Fund currently has 403,316 members.
With this FNPF says the contribution growth has been increasing consistently over the years.
“We collect on average about $40m monthly for over 200,000 members from over 9780 employers we process on average 5,000 application on a monthly basis we look after the welfare of over 7,000 pensioners and 400,000 members who are yet to retire from the fund.” said Koroi.
The FNPF had also paid out $123.1m to those that had turned 55 years of age last year.
“We manage close to 5 billion worth of investments in various asset classes including project development and offshore investments FNPF is the largest landlord in Fiji with 19 properties 2 underdevelopment and approximately 200 tenants in our buildings.” he added.
The FNPF also adds that alot of members when they reach the age of 55 they opt to take their money out.
They say that last year only 4.2% that reached the retirement age took the pension option.