The pension management system for officials and civil servants managed by the Social Insurance Institute – State Employees’ General Retirement Fund (Institut de prévoyance sociale – Caisse générale de retraite des agents de l’Etat – IPS-CGRAE) experienced serious difficulties for a long time, leading to a cumulative deficit of more than francs CFA 288 billion as at 31 December 2012. This was largely due to the non-payment or partial payment of contributions by affiliated government agencies over a number of years.

Internal staff training courses organized by the National Social Insurance Fund (Caisse nationale de prévoyance sociale – CNPS) were centralized in Yaoundé, with some deployment at the level of the four regional headquarters. This compelled staff from external services to travel long distances and stay away from their duty stations and homes for several days or even weeks to attend these training courses. This model generated enormous costs for the organization in terms of travel, accommodation and subsistence.

The three thousand staff who use the National Social Insurance Fund (Caisse nationale de prévoyance sociale – CNPS) IT system (business, office and infrastructure applications) had to resort to telephoning headquarters IT staff or emailing them whenever they experienced a technical difficulty. They were forced to wait until someone was available to take the call and, if possible, explain at length what to do to resolve the problem remotely. This meant that the process of handling requests, follow-up, and the recording of reliable statistics was unreliable.

Employers are required to register as enterprises and to register their staff, then pay the corresponding social security contributions. When the employer does not do this, the employees may do it themselves. What has been found in practice is that many employers either do not register themselves or their staff, as a result of which the latter cannot access the social security benefits provided by the National Social Insurance Fund (Caisse nationale de prévoyance sociale – CNPS).

The Collective Scheme for Retirement Allowances (Régime collectif d’allocation de retraite – RCAR) has introduced a fully computerized and versatile multi-scheme, multiproduct organizational and technological management platform, consisting of a multi-channel Customer Relations Centre (agencies, a call centre, web/mobile, social networks), a multiproduct Payment Centre, and a computerized Back Office that is integrated with RCAR’s partners.

Before August 2015 more than 3 million pensioners of the Mexican Social Security Institute (Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social – IMSS) had to visit its offices at least twice a year to confirm their survival to continue receiving pension payments.

The National Social Insurance Fund (Caisse nationale de prévoyance sociale – CNaPS) is continuing its efforts to extend social security coverage in Madagascar. An initiative to expand awareness raising activities has become a laudable strategy in terms of its achievements. In 2014 it launched a programme for Catholic school leaders that promotes and raises awareness on the provisions of social security and of their responsibilities regarding such rights.

The National Social Security and insurance Trust (NASSIT) was established through Parliamentary Act No. 5 of 2001 and charged with the responsibility of administering the Sierra Leone Pension Scheme. The scheme started operations in January 2002 as a mandatory contributory defined benefit Pension Plan. As at December 2010, NASSIT had 161,000 active Members (Contributors) and operates a payroll of over 12,000 Pensioners. By end of December 2014, membership of the Scheme grew to 165,000 and the number of Pensioners grew to 14,500.

Financial institutions in Africa have successfully plugged into the mobile ecosystem and deployed services that have revolutionized service delivery, transforming customer engagement touch points and feedback mechanisms as well as enhancing responsiveness of the financial institutions. In addition to this mobile tech has enabled financial penetration. Currently Kenya has 68 per cent financial penetration through mobile tech and is at 80 per cent in use. While many Social Security services providers use mobile technology, they are still to fully leverage on its capabilities.

Records Management is a critical part of social security administration. The inherent risks in poor records management are not only limited to incorrect payments but often expose the scheme to fraud, loss of data/information, compromised data integrity, poor fund management leading to non-realization of return on investment, litigation, etc.