Can Zimbabweans afford to retire?

1. Introduction

As I alluded in my last piece, Life Coaches talk about the difference between riches and wealth. In talking about wealth, most of them agree that it's measured in terms of time more than it is measured in terms of quantity.

So if you stop an active economic activity today, how long will you last at your current lifestyle using your savings? One could be generous enough and allow you to add in your passive income. But if you have to scale down, it should be on the variable expenses associated with your just stopped economic activity.

If you are wealthy, you should continue as you wish and even leave some for your heirs. In this article, we want to look at ways of earning a living and how part of those earnings are invested for future income. We also want to look at what happens when you retire from active duty and are in your twilight zone. 

2. Ways of earning a living

There are many ways of engaging in activity that reward one with ability to look after themselves and their dependents. These ways include formal and informal employment, income from a business and passive income from either an investment return or a pre-set up fund.

Most people however, depend on employment. In Zimbabwe, it is safe to say most employees are in the informal sector where they are self-employed. The Fifteenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians (15th ICLS) adopted an international statistical definition of the informal sector that was subsequently included in the revised international System of National Accounts (SNA 1993). Inclusion in the SNA of the informal sector definition was considered essential as it would make it possible to identify the informal sector separately in the accounts and, hence, to quantify the contribution of the informal sector to the gross domestic product. In order to obtain an internationally agreed definition of the informal sector, which was acceptable to labour statisticians as well as national accountants, the informal sector had to be defined in terms of characteristics of the production units (enterprises) in which the activities take place (enterprise approach), rather than in terms of the characteristics of the persons involved or of their jobs (labour approach). Employment in the informal sector includes all jobs in informal sector enterprises or all persons who, during a given reference period, were employed in at least one informal sector enterprise, irrespective of their status in employment and whether it was their main or a secondary job. The 15th ICLS (ILO 2000) defined informal sector enterprises on the basis of the following criteria:

       i.           They are private unincorporated enterprises (excluding quasi-corporations) , i.e. enterprises owned by individuals or households that are not constituted as separate legal entities independently of their owners, and for which no complete accounts are available that would permit a financial separation of the production activities of the enterprise from the other activities of its owner(s). Private unincorporated enterprises include unincorporated enterprises owned and operated by individual household members or by several members of the same household, as well as unincorporated partnerships and co-operatives formed by members of different households, if they lack complete sets of accounts.  

     ii.           All or at least some of the goods or services produced are meant for sale or barter, with the possible inclusion in the informal sector of households which produce domestic or personal services in employing paid domestic employees.

   iii.           Their size in terms of employment is below a certain threshold to be determined according to national circumstances, and/or they are not registered under specific forms of national legislation (such as factories’ or commercial acts, tax or social security laws, professional groups’ regulatory acts, or similar acts, laws or regulations established by national legislative bodies as distinct from local regulations for issuing trade licenses or business permits), and/or their employees (if any) are not registered.

   iv.           They are engaged in non-agricultural activities, including secondary non-agricultural activities of enterprises in the agricultural sector .

The meaning of the term ‘sector’ follows the SNA 1993. For national accounting purposes, a sector (institutional sector) is different from a branch of economic activity (industry). It simply groups together similar kinds of production units, which in terms of economic objectives, functions and behaviour have certain characteristics in common. The result is not necessarily a homogeneous set of production units. For the purposes of analysis and policy-making, it may thus be useful to divide a sector into more homogeneous sub-sectors. Informal sector enterprises as defined by the 15th ICLS are a sub-sector of the SNA institutional sector ‘households’. The term ‘enterprise’ is used here in a broad sense, referring to any unit engaged in the production of goods or services for sale or barter. It covers not only production units, which employ hired labour, but also production units that are owned and operated by single individuals working on own account as self-employed persons, either alone or with the help of unpaid family members. The activities may be undertaken inside or outside the enterprise owner’s home, and they may be carried out in identifiable premises, unidentifiable premises or without fixed location. In the SNA 1993, such enterprises are called ‘household unincorporated enterprises’ or ‘household enterprises’ because they form part of the SNA institutional sector ‘households’. Since these terms are often misinterpreted by people who are not familiar with the SNA framework, we will use the term ‘private unincorporated enterprises’. The 15th ICLS recognised that, from a conceptual point of view, there was nothing against the inclusion, within the scope of the informal sector, of private unincorporated enterprises engaged in agricultural and related activities, if they met the criteria of the informal sector definition. The recommendation to exclude agricultural and related activities from the scope of informal sector surveys, and to measure them separately, was however made for practical data collection reasons. Accordingly, self-employed street vendors, taxi drivers, home-based workers, etc. are all considered enterprises. Still, it may well be possible that persons engaged in very small-scale or casual activities may not report in official statistical surveys that they are self-employed or employed at all, even though their activity falls within the above definition of an enterprise. Similar problems may arise in respect of persons, whose activity is at the borderline between self-employment and wage employment, such as outworkers, subcontractors or free-lancers. Women are more likely than men to be engaged in such activities.

In exploring the Definition of Informal employment further and in parallel to the growth of the informal sector in many countries, a rise in various forms of informal (or non-standard, atypical, alternative, irregular, precarious, etc.) employment can be observed. From the beginning, it had been clear that an enterprise-based definition of the informal sector, such as the definition adopted by the 15th ICLS, would not be able, nor meant, to capture all aspects of such a trend towards an increasing ‘informalisation’ of employment. The international Expert Group on Informal Sector Statistics (Delhi Group) therefore joined statistics users in concluding that the definition and measurement of employment in the informal sector needed to be complemented with a definition and measurement of informal employment (CSO/India 2001). The concept of informal employment is considered to be relevant not only for developing and transition countries, but also for developed countries, for many of which the concept of the informal sector is of limited relevance. A part of the growing ‘informalisation’ of employment may be attributed to the globalisation process of the economy. This is because enterprises tend to respond to competitive pressure in resorting to mixed-mode labour arrangements, in which observance of labour regulations for some workers is combined with the use of non-standard, atypical, alternative, irregular, precarious, etc. types of labour or various forms of subcontracting. A conceptual framework for defining informal employment was proposed in the ILO report on ‘Decent Work and the Informal Economy’, which had been prepared for discussion by the International Labour Conference at its 90th Session in June 2002 (Hussmanns 2001; ILO 2002a). The conceptual framework was well received by the International Labour Conference, the Delhi Group and other meetings to which it had been presented. Several countries (Brazil, Georgia, India, Mexico and the Republic of Moldova) tested the framework successfully, and in December 2003 the 17th ICLS adopted guidelines endorsing it as an international statistical standard (ILO 2003). These guidelines complement the 15th ICLS Resolution concerning statistics of employment in the informal sector. During discussions on terminology, some considered the term ‘informal employment’ as being too positive and thus potentially misleading for policy purposes, while others feared that statistics users might have difficulties to understand the difference between ‘informal employment’ and ‘employment in the informal sector’ and confuse the two terms. Nevertheless, the term ‘informal employment’ was retained because there was no agreement regarding the use of an alternative term, such as ‘unprotected employment’. The 17th ICLS defined informal employment as comprising the total number of informal jobs, whether carried out in formal sector enterprises, informal sector enterprises, or households, during a given reference period. The purpose of the conceptual framework developed by the ILO is to relate the enterprise-based concept of employment in the informal sector in a consistent manner with a job-based concept of informal employment, and thereby extend the former concept to a broader one. The two concepts complement rather than replace each other because the observation units are different. A person can simultaneously have two or more formal and/or informal jobs. Due to the existence of such multiple jobholding, jobs rather than employed persons were taken as the observation units for employment. Employed persons hold jobs that can be described by various job-related characteristics, and these jobs are undertaken in production units (enterprises) that can be described by various enterprise-related characteristics. Thus, the framework disaggregates total employment according to two dimensions: type of production unit and type of job. Type of production unit is defined in terms of legal organisation and other enterprise-related characteristics, while type of job is defined in terms of status in employment and other job-related characteristics. Production units are classified into three groups: formal sector enterprises, informal sector enterprises, and households. Formal sector enterprises comprise corporations (including quasi-corporate enterprises), non-profit institutions, unincorporated enterprises owned by government units, and those private unincorporated enterprises producing goods or services for sale or barter which is not part of the informal sector. The definition of informal sector enterprises has already been given above. Households as production units are defined here as including households producing goods exclusively for their own final use (e.g. subsistence farming, do-it-yourself construction of own dwellings), as well as households employing paid domestic workers (maids, laundresses, gardeners, watchmen, drivers, etc.) Households producing unpaid domestic or personal services (e.g., housework, caring for family members) for their own final consumption are excluded, as such activities fall presently outside the SNA production boundary and are not considered employment. Jobs are distinguished according to status-in-employment categories and according to their formal or informal nature. For status in employment, the following five ICSE-93 groups are used: (i) Own-account workers; (ii) Employers; (iii) Contributing family workers; (iv) Employees; and (v) Members of producers’ cooperatives. Such breakdown by the 15th ICLS definition of the informal sector excludes households producing goods exclusively for their own final use, but provides an option to include households employing paid domestic workers. The framework presented here and adopted by the 17th ICLS does not use this option and, hence, excludes households employing paid domestic workers from the informal sector. Status in employment was considered useful for policy purposes. For example, there cannot be contributing family workers in household non-market production units. Formal jobs examples are own-account workers and employers owning formal sector enterprises, employees with formal jobs in formal sector enterprises, or members of formally established producers’ cooperatives. There are other various types of informal jobs that should be further disaggregated to identify specific types of jobs or production units for analysis and policy-making.

The basis used for distinguishing informal jobs is that they are outside the framework of regulations either because

a)     The enterprises, in which the jobs are located, are too small and/or not registered, or

b)     Labour legislation does not specifically cover or is not applied to atypical jobs (such as casual, part-time, temporary or home-based jobs) or to subcontracting arrangements in production chains (such as industrial outwork), so that the jobs (and, therefore, their incumbents) are unprotected by labour legislation.

In order for most labour law to be implemented, it is necessary to recognise the existence of an employment relationship between employer and employee. Informal jobs, however, include forms of employment for which there is no clear employer-employee relationship. Accordingly, informal employment as I have already alluded to comprises:

                                           i.           Own-account workers and employers employed in their own informal sector enterprises. The employment situation of own-account workers and employers can hardly be separated from the type of enterprise, which they own. The informal nature of their jobs follows thus directly from the characteristics of the enterprise.

                                         ii.           Contributing family workers, irrespective of whether they work in formal or informal sector enterprises. The informal nature of their jobs is due to the fact that contributing family workers usually do not have explicit, written contracts of employment, and that usually their employment is not subject to labour legislation, social security regulations or collective agreements.

                                       iii.           Employees holding informal jobs, whether employed by formal sector enterprises, informal sector enterprises, or as paid domestic workers by households. Employees are considered to have informal jobs if their employment of family workers with a contract of employment and/or wage would be considered employees. There is also the issue of employees holding formal jobs in informal sector enterprises. Such cases, which are included in employment in the informal sector but excluded from informal employment, may occur when enterprises are defined as informal in using size as the only criterion, or where there is no administrative link between the registration of employees and the registration of their employers. However, the number of such employees is likely to be small in most countries. Where the number is significant, it would be useful to define the informal sector in such a way that enterprises employing formal employees are excluded. Such a definition has been proposed, for example, for Argentina (Pok 1992) and is in line with the 15th ICLS resolution, which includes the non-registration of the employees of the enterprise among the criteria for defining the informal sector (ILO 2000) relationship is, in law or in practice, not subject to national labour legislation, income taxation, social protection or entitlement to certain employment benefits (advance notice of dismissal, severance pay, paid annual or sick leave, etc.) for reasons such as: non-declaration of the jobs or the employees; casual jobs or jobs of a limited short duration; jobs with hours of work or wages below a specified threshold (e.g. for social security contributions); employment by unincorporated enterprises or by persons in households; jobs where the employee’s place of work is outside the premises of the employer’s enterprise (e.g. outworkers without employment contract); or jobs, for which labour regulations are not applied, not enforced, or not complied with for any other reason.

                                       iv.           Members of informal producers’ cooperatives. The informal nature of their jobs follows directly from the characteristics of the cooperative of which they are members.

                                         v.           Own-account workers engaged in the production of goods exclusively for own final use by their household (such as subsistence farming or do-it-yourself construction of own dwellings), if considered employed according to the 13th ICLS definition of employment.

The major new element is the above definition of informal jobs of employees. However, given the large diversity of informal employment situations the 17th ICLS had to leave the operational criteria for defining informal jobs of employees for determination by countries in accordance with national circumstances and data availability. While the definition mentions the most important causes and effects of informal wage employment, it was not intended to provide a typology and definitions of the various different forms of informal employee jobs. Such a typology and definitions would have to be developed as part of further work on classifications by status in employment at the international and national levels. A strategy for developing a typology of atypical forms of employment, based on the International Classification of Status in Employment (ICSE-93), has been outlined by Mata Greenwood and Hoffmann (2002). The definition corresponds to the definition of unregistered employees of the informal sector resolution adopted by the 15th ICLS. It encompasses the ICSE93 definitions of non-regular employees, workers in precarious employment (casual workers, shortterm workers, seasonal workers, etc.) and contractors. Producers’ cooperatives, which are formally established as legal entities, are incorporated enterprises and, hence, part of the formal sector. Members of such formally established producers’ cooperatives are considered to have formal jobs. Producers’ cooperatives, which are not formally established as legal entities, are treated as private unincorporated enterprises owned by members of several households. They are part of the informal sector if they also meet the other criteria of the definition. It is widely recognised that certain types of workers are difficult to classify by status in employment because they are at the borderline of two or more of the ICSE93 groups, especially between own-account workers and employees. An example is outworkers (home-workers). The framework presented in this paper and adopted by the 17th ICLS makes it possible to capture all outworkers in informal employment, irrespective of their classification by status in employment.

This extensive analysis of what formal and informal employment and formal and informal sectors are is critical in the context of this paper because we are examining what can be done to improve the lives of Zimbabweans. It is also important to bore you with details of the definitions like I did and in particular, referencing the various sources of the said definitions because employment is a politically charged issue. Those who have a dogmatic view of viewing what employment is cry crisis in Zimbabwe because they do not appreciate how we engage in gainful employment here. 

3. Financial inclusion Matrix

Financial inclusion is the availability and equality of opportunities to access financial services. It refers to a process by which individuals and businesses can access appropriate, affordable, and timely financial products and services. These include banking, loan, equity, and insurance products. Access has to be to regulated financial services. That brings in the element of how these services are registered to operate. In Zimbabwe, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) regulates the banking sector and the Insurance and Pension Commission (IPEC) regulates insurance companies. There are other financial services like the Medical Aid Companies that are available but whose regulation is questionable as the public does not have access to the methods employed by their regulators as to how such critical Key Performance indicators like Capitalization, Solvency, Expense and Loss ratios are controlled.  The sore thumb that sticks out for me however, is the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) which is self-regulating. In all fairness, NSSA should be regulated by IPEC or at least use the same guidelines that insurance companies follow and then these are enforced and controlled by an independent body with state authority to do so. There is no evident outside forces than do what we see the RBZ and IPEC do for the entities that they regulate. However, for now we view these services as part of financial inclusion. Financial inclusion refers to efforts to make financial products and services accessible and affordable to all individuals and businesses, regardless of their personal net worth or company size. Financial inclusion strives to remove the barriers that exclude people from participating in the financial sector and using these services to improve their lives. It is also called inclusive finance. Financial inclusion is an effort to make everyday financial services available to more of Zimbabwe’s population at a reasonable cost.

Advancements in financial transactions that brought about Ecocash, One-Money and Telecash are making financial inclusion easier to achieve. In 2009, Zimbabwe had just over one million active bank accounts and around nine million active cellphone numbers across all networks. The dream of Econet at the time was to turn as many of the cellphone numbers into bank accounts as possible. Today, Zimbabwe can boast of being one of the examples of rapid financial inclusion penetration on the continent as owning a cellphone handset and an active number, is all you need to participate in the much sought after regulated financial sector. Thanks to the efforts of those who aggressively pursued financial inclusion through cellphone numbers. However, the World Bank estimates that some 1.7 billion adults worldwide still lack access to even a basic bank account

3.1 How Financial Inclusion Works

As the World Bank notes on its website, financial inclusion "facilitates day-to-day living, and helps families and businesses plan for everything from long-term goals to unexpected emergencies." What's more, it adds, "As accountholders, people are more likely to use other financial services, such as savings, credit and insurance, start and expand businesses, invest in education or health, manage risk, and weather financial shocks, all of which can improve the overall quality of their lives."

This immediately points to three quick wins of financial inclusion benefits for the large masses in Zimbabwe who participate in the informal sector. As you know, regulated financial institutions are rigid in their conduct especially when it comes to issuing out loans. If for a personal loan one does not have proof of residence, payslip and evidence of continued predictable income they do not get a personal loan. The three low hanging fruit benefits of financial inclusion are:

1)     Easy access to personal loans. This is being done through Low KYC accounts which are bank accounts that only require an ID to open and also through mobile money 30day loans that you can get on your mobile phone. This is certainly better than chimbadzo which is harmful to both participants as the interests are prohibitive and the widely used enforcement methods borderline illegal.

2)     Micro insurance products of which the big one is funeral cash cover. Traditionally, such emergencies required the bereaved to borrow from friends and relatives as well as get some help from neighbours.

3)     Better accountability of the National Gross Domestic product as more economic activities are channelled through formal channels

While the barriers to financial inclusion have been a problem for a long time, a number of forces are now helping broaden access to the kinds of financial services that many affluent consumers take for granted.

For its part, the financial industry is continually coming up with new ways to provide products and services to the global population, and often turn a profit in the process. The increasing use of financial technology, for example, has provided innovative tools to address the problem of inaccessibility to financial services and devised new ways for individuals and organizations to obtain the services they need at reasonable costs. One can now simply buy an insurance product like funeral policy on their mobile handset, pay up their periodical insurance premiums and make claims through their handset or any other gadget that allows them access to their secure online account. All payments are done without setting foot in a physical bank. There is some resistance from certain sectors of the economy as we have seen with commuter omnibuses for example, demanding cash for their fares. Some people, particularly those from the Cash-era, also still insist on physical cash. This has seen queues still forming at banks as they are the cheapest method of accessing cash. One can actually profile the kind of people that can be found in bank queues. So for the purpose of target marketing a specific product for such can be designed for them. It can also pay for the government to do a survey of those found in bank queues to collect the reasons why they still prefer hard cash so that these issues can be addressed.  

4. Sources of income

Income sources include, wages and salaries, return from and own savings, income from own business and other investments, NSSA and Voluntary pension schemes)

One or a combination of the above sources must not stop during one’s lifetime. What is expected is probably a shift from one type to another as what happens with someone who depends on salary shifting to a pension income at retirement. This takes us to the introduction of this paper, which is wealth creation. In this lifetime;

         i.           One needs to be able to take care of their family needs, which are commonly referred to as breadwinning. This includes putting food on the table, clothing and furniture, paying bills and sending the children to school

       ii.           Take care of any emergencies and incidentals that may take place from time to time like funerals, replacement of property that may be destroyed by fire or stolen

     iii.           Creating and developing an investment tool that will take care of the living needs after retirement. Most people traditionally rely on a Pension Plan for this.

So a budget must recognise all of the three types of expenses above so that as income comes, one allocates money for living expenses, insurance for the unforeseen expenses and savings for future income. Nothing annoys and demotivates ones zeal for life more than a fire that guts ones home and robes them of their savings when they have to replace what was destroyed, stolen or damaged. And whilst at that, normal life must not be disrupted. Children must continue going to school and visits to the health spa and gym must not stop.

As long as one lives and is able to work, then one can always make a plan on how to take care of their immediate needs. The problem comes when it comes to budgeting. In these days of low incomes it is easy to live beyond ones means and at best, one is always chasing after satisfying shortfalls that are created by the disparities between income and expenses. So even if one was to be disciplined enough to create a savings plan, inflation will soon erode it away and so there is no value in doing one’s own thing so to speak. There is need to give up the future income plans to professionals, that is insurance companies and other financial institutions that have the expertise to hedge savings and the necessary budgets to put into the required research. They learnt their lesson in the 2004 – 2008 hyper-inflation eras when savings and pension plans were rendered null and void. The government on its part has put in place what is the best practice in other countries of a compulsory pension fund. In Zimbabwe it is known as the National Social Security Authority (NSSA). Not only does it take care of one’s income after retirement but it also serves as a Workmen Compensation Fund and so provides compensation to workers when they are injured at work and suffer total temporary disability, permanent disability or death. The following is an extract of the benefits of NSSA as at 17 May 2020:

PENSION AND OTHER BENEFITS SCHEME (POBS)

Under this scheme the following are covered:

• All employees working in a profession, trade or occupation who are above the age of 16 and who have not attained the age of 65. Under this scheme once an employee attains the age of 65, deduction of contributions in respect of the employee should cease even if he/she continues to work.
• Zimbabwean citizens who are either employed in Zimbabwe, or outside Zimbabwe as a continuation of insurable employment in Zimbabwe.
• Persons who are ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe and are either employed in Zimbabwe, or outside Zimbabwe as a continuation of insurable employment in Zimbabwe.
• Civil servants.
• Membership to the scheme is compulsory regardless of whether the employee is covered by a private scheme.

Workers who are exempted from membership are:

1. Non Zimbabwean citizens who are not ordinarily resident in Zimbabwe
2. Diplomatic staff who are non–Zimbabwean
3. Persons employed as domestic workers

WHO IS COVERED?

ACCIDENT PREVENTION AND WORKERS COMPENSATION SCHEME (APWC)

All workers formally employed in a profession, trade or occupation who are above the age of 16.

Workers who are exempted are:

• Civil servants

N.B. Employers are required to pay premiums for all employees inclusive of those above the age of 65.

CATEGORIES OF INSURABLE EMPLOYMENT

1. Employment in Zimbabwe under any contract of service, written or implied;
2. Employment in Zimbabwe whether registered or not;
3. Employment within or outside Zimbabwe of a person domiciled or having a place of residence in Zimbabwe, if the contract of service was entered into in Zimbabwe;
4. Employment in the service of Diplomatic or Consular Missions in Zimbabwe;
5. Casual employment; when an employee is employed in any 6 weeks of a 12 week period or receives payment in any one calendar month for at least 18 days of employment with one employer;
6. Employment in co-operatives. This refers to employees and members of the co-operative who are drawing a salary or wage from the co-operative.

WHAT IF I EMPLOY CASUAL WORKERS WHO WORK FOR LESS THAN 18 DAYS IN A MONTH?

1. Accident Prevention and Workers Compensation Scheme (APWC)
2. Once you engage an employee you should ensure he is covered under the scheme, regardless of period of employment, even if it is for a few hours.
3. Pensions and Other Benefits Scheme (POBS)
4. Employees contracted for periods for less than 18 days in a month do not contribute to the scheme. However where you have casual workers who work for 5 days or more in a month but the contract runs for several months, the employees are supposed to contribute as they have fixed contracts of employment. The periods worked will be aggregated for one to qualify for a benefit.

HOW ARE WORKERS COVERED?

• Under Accident Prevention and Workers Compensation Insurance Fund (APWC) scheme, workers are covered through the employer registering with NSSA and paying the required premiums for his workers.
• Under Pensions and Other Benefits scheme (POB) employees are covered through the registration of the employer and employees, as well as the payment of contributions by both employer and employee for the benefit of the employee to the scheme.

NB: Employers are encouraged to ensure that their workers have national identity cards to ensure successful registration and speedy processing of benefits.

This is the reason why we bothered to give all the various facets of formal and informal employment and the various qualifications of the formal and informal sectors so that the readers can see the gaps in the current cover. NSSA obviously looks at the non financial inclusion and old definition of employment which only recognises employees who have a payslip and go to work in registered companies that have formal structures. If we are to avoid creating vagabonds every year through those who stop working for a living either through retirement or incapacitation by some cause like disability through injury, we must address those gaps immediately!

5. Future savings, employee benefits and annuities

The biggest question to be addressed is, how do we enable, the informal sector to start contributing to a Pension Fund as well as Workmen Compensation? A street vendor who is temporarily disabled for a few weeks due to injury does not need to have his income interrupted. His/her breadwinning function also needs to be met. This is especially true in these days of the Coronavirus pandemic. A lot of people lost their incomes during the Lockdown. Post Lockdown, businesses must adapt their current products and innovate to bring into effect, products that address customers needs and make them profit at the same time. For example, the products that an insurance company must come up with must meet the following marketing mix:

1)     The Product must address both the formal and informal sector needs regardless of the employee contract status. The full definitions given above in our paper must be included.

2)     The Pricing must differentiate the various segments as per the above. Micro-insurance must take centre stage.

3)     The Place/Distribution Channels must support social distancing. Payment and contributions should happen not only online, but in cases where face to face meetings occur, allow non-contact transaction, the way Ecocash works right now wherein the operator just punches the payers number into his/her point of sale machine and a notification appears on the payers mobile phone for authentification.

4)     All the Promotions should support online and non contact media. In this era of social media, cloud computing, podcasts, TV, and other mass communication media this should be easy.  

5)     The Packaging must support portable filing that includes digitally signed portable documents files that are accessible on the cloud serving and concerned stakeholders can access according to their rights and permissions. Information Technology security becomes key as well.

5.1 NSSA and Voluntary Pension schemes

In addition to a national compulsory scheme provided by NSSA, voluntary pension schemes and other employee benefit plans need to continue running. Insurance companies and private funds must offer relevant top up voluntary cover to those who wish to live above the NSSA datum line after retirement.

If pensioners become self sufficient, the burden on both their children and the national coffers is reduced drastically if not eliminated altogether. This is how you create a wealthy nation and good quality of life. As you know, stress related lifestyle illnesses are the leading cause of deaths in most countries.

This is a follow up Article after the one I posted a few months ago:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/can-you-afford-retire-zimbabwe-sam-samu/