THE Government Employees Provident Fund (GEPF) in association with the Tanzania Investment Bank (TIB), is in the process of setting up a wine pressing factory in Dodoma, echoing the fifth phase government’s industrialization policy.
The GEPF Board Chairperson, Ms Joyce Shaidi, said the proposed winery plant is to be built at Chamwino, a move which further strengthens the current state initiative to concentrate many of the government activities in Dodoma, easing the burden of the already overwhelmed Dar es Salaam.
Ms Shaidi was speaking during the Government Employees Provident Fund’s (GEPF) 8th Annual General Conference taking place at the Arusha Conference Centre, where it was also observed that contributions from officers in the local Police Force comprise more than 60 per cent of the total Scheme’s Membership pooling.
At the moment, GEPF has 114,462 members and many of them happen to be police officers and employees of the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) as well as other public firms.
Opening the conference, the Deputy Finance Minister, Ms Ashatu Kijaji, said the government has already settled the money owed by pension schemes in thecountry and so far, 249bn/- has been disbursed, reducing the accumulated debt of 284bn/- and that the remaining 35bn/- willbe settled soon.
“The remaining amount will be paid out before the end of June 2017 so the funds should be patient, besides we have already settled a large part of the sum,” said the Deputy Minister, adding that the government was fully committed to ensuring that all pension schemes are supported and empowered for sustainable growth.
However, the Deputy Minister expressed concern that most Tanzanians are now covered under any pension scheme and that as of this year, it is only 13 per cent of the total workforce which has been enlisted in the local provident funds.
“We have 87 per cent of the country’s working population not covered and this should raise alarm,” she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment