MINISTER of Finance and Treasury, Manasseh Sogavare plans to take the new Solomon Islands National Provident Fund (SINPF) reform bill to Parliament before the end of 2025.
Minister Sogavare confirmed this when he announced the 4 percent crediting rate for the 2024 financial year to members of SINPF at the Heritage Park Hotel on Monday.
He is still to provide the details of the new SINPF Reform Bill.
However, Minister Sogavare was the one who tabled the SINPF (Amendment) Bill 2018 and got it passed in Parliament.
“You may have recalled as a Minister of Finance in 2018, I had successfully brought to Parliament an amendment to the NPF Act to allow for Solomon Islanders in the informal sector to save for their old age with the Fund.
“Today, more than 43,000 informal workers have contributed for their old age amounting to more than $88 million,” he said.
The SINPF (Amendment) Bill 2018 allows those in the informal employment to also save for retirement.
This saving scheme is called the YouSAVE, a new voluntary pension scheme operated by SINPF.
This new scheme improves the financial inclusion of pension savings in Solomon Islands and is supported by the Pacific Financial Inclusion Programme.
Other amendments are also made to bolster the financial stability of the Special Death Benefit entitlement to NPF members.
Currently, the special death benefit yearly premium has not been updated in over 40 years and is set too low for SINPF to provide an appropriate Special Death Benefit to its members.
The amendments update the special death benefit premium and other monetary amounts specified in the Act that have been eroded by inflation over the last 40 years which no longer appropriately reflect an appropriate monetary amount.
These amendments to the SINPF Act will also change the timing for the declaration of the yearly interest to be credited to members’ accounts.
The amendments change the timing from the end of the financial year, which is in June, to three months after the end of the financial year, which is the end of September.
This allows the SINPF to make the decision of how much interest to credit to members’ accounts based on audited financial accounts, rather than on unaudited accounts that could change.
This change aims to improve the financial soundness of SINPF decision – making.
By EDDIE OSIFELO
Solomon Star, Honiara
