BY BUSINESS EDITOR
MANZINI– The Eswatini National Provident Fund (ENPF) has officially announced the appointment of Futhi Tembe as the acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the Fund.
This was communicated by ENPF in a statement shared to media houses yesterday.
Tembe is the current General Manager Finance & Business Development at ENPF and she will be replacing the Minister of Natural Resources and Energy Prince Lonkhekhela who has been at the helm of the throne for more than a decade.
ENPF revealed that its member funds amounted to E4,81 billion as compared to E4,46 billion in 2021.
This is contained in the Fund’s Annual Report for the year ended 30 June 2022.
ENPF discloses in the report that the total number of registered members was 142 023, which was a 2.99% increase over the year 2021.
Meanwhile, the Fund’s total number of active registered employers stood at 6 804 compared to 6 720 in 2021.
The Fund notes that one of its biggest achievements to date is its ability to pay members their benefits on time.
“The Fund continues to be the envy of most social security schemes in that it always pays its members their benefits in less than two (2) days, on average, of launching the claim. The average days that claims were processed and paid during the year under review was 1.8 days, which was actually an improvement when compared with the number of days in the prior year, where the Fund took an average of 2.47 days.”
According to the report, ENPF has divulged that when it comes to compliance they are lagging behind their own benchmark.
“Regarding compliance rate, the Fund continues to lag behind its set benchmark of 92%. During the year under review, the Fund achieved an average compliance rate of 86.96% which was an increase from last year’s rate of 84.67%. This year’s compliance rate though lower than the prior year compares favourably to other pension and provident funds worldwide.”
In terms of contributions for the financial year under review, ENPF realized an 8% increase.
“Contributions received for the year ended 30 June 2022 amounted to E421.9 million (2021: E387.5 million) and represented a year-on-year increase of 8% (2020:2.4% increase). The year-on-year increase as compared to 2021 is largely due to the annual increase in contributions of 6.45% as well as the economic impact of the uplifting of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions on employment as reflected in the year-on-year increase in membership from 137 903 in 2021 to 138 021 in 2022.”
“Benefits paid by the Fund for the 2021/22 financial year was E233,2 million (2020/21: E202,8 million). This represents a year-on-year increase of 13%,” added the Fund.
