The Seychelles Pension Fund (SPF or the Fund) undertook an extensive review of its investment management framework and related practices in 2021 and 2022. The exercise focussed on improving the institution’s Investment Policy framework, so that operations are aligned to international best practice and the prescriptions of the ISSA Guidelines.

Risk management is a fairly new concept within the Seychelles Pension Fund (SPF) which was established in 2018. As SPF is committed to creating a comprehensive risk management programme to ensure that risk is properly monitored and integrated in on-going management of each section, a new tool was necessary to complement our existing risk register. The tool is Excel based and has provided SPF with a systematic process to better manage and control section risks holistically.

The Seychelles Pension Fund (SPF) was set up in January 2006 by an Act of Parliament in 2000 with the objectives to provide for the financial security of members or the deceased dependents by the payment of a monthly pension. Following the introduction of SPF, the processing of benefits application was done using the physical application and this has some challenges because A4 paper had to be used in the processing of the application for the computation of the pension. Also, there was storage problems as there was no proper archive system in place for storage of records.

In March 2020, the coronavirus pandemic broke out in Israel.

What began as a health crisis soon turned into an economic crisis, which led many workers to go on forced unpaid leave and went to the National Insurance Institute (NII) for assistance. There was a need to find creative solutions within the limits of the law and the data available to the NII, and to find workable and quick solutions that would allow the payment of unemployment benefits to unpaid workers.

The campaign named Pas Kot Fon Pansyon pour en Konversasyon translated into Come to pension fund for a conversation was the campaign introduced in 2019 to encourage members to consider the Seychelles Pension Fund (SPF) as a primary source of information pertaining to pension issues.

Twelve years of intensive promotional activities since the launching of the Seychelles Pension Fund (SPF), we now have an appreciation that the importance of pension has well and truly permeated the population; inclusive of the informal sector albeit a slower rate. The key is to maintain member’s interest in their preparation towards retirement – and with a new decade comes a new generation, more IT savvy but with the same need.

It remains a challenge for the Seychelles Pension Fund (SPF) to attract members of the public who are in the informal sector. As a means to get this group to contribute towards SPF and later benefit with a pension, the protecting you campaign was initiated.

In today’s unprecedented times, effective and agile internal auditing is required. The Seychelles Pension Fund (SPF)’s Internal Audit (IA) function needs to adapt quickly to changing risks to provide assurance to its Board that the governance, risk management and control processes are working effectively, thus instilling public confidence that members’ contributions and the Fund’s assets are being well managed.

A review of Seychelles Pension Fund (SPF) communication strategy 2017 indicated that there was a visible service gap in terms of public perceptions of our services. There was a need to realign our communication strategy in line with SPF’s mandate so as to regain public support.

The previous marketing campaigns of the Seychelles Pension Fund (SPF) for voluntary contributions have given rise to many instances where participating members in the scheme wanted to open an account for their loved ones. The festive season being a time for giving gift, SPF packaged Voluntary Contribution as a gift that members can add to their list to give to their loved ones. As advocates of the Voluntary Contribution, existing participating members thus add leverage to our mission of cultivating a savings culture in our society.

In January 2018, the Seychelles Pension Fund (SPF) began implementing an automated data capture through the use of Extended Mark-up Language (XML) files and gradually moved away from manual posting of members’ contribution into the data management system. A decision was taken to start the exercise with government departments as they used a centralized system for payments. Its implementation will go through different phases over the years and we will later include the largest employers in the private sectors.

In January 2015, the Seychelles Pension Fund (SPF) implemented a new pension formula, this was to strengthen the link between contributions and benefits and provide incentives for members to contribute longer periods as they benefit from a higher pension. Due to the complexity of its components (Average Wage, Annual Average Wage Growth, Accrual Rate and Years of Contributions), the pension calculator was designed to enable members to get an indication of their pension without having to understand the technicality of the formula.

Pension in figures was first issued by the Seychelles Pension Fund (SPF) in 2011, and has been published every year since then. The aim was to try and attract more members to read and have an idea of the SPF’s annual performance and financial status so that they will be more abreast about the SPF’s current situation.