"Mobile Money" Helps Kenya's Informal Workers Save for Retirement

Patricia Odera is a Senior Corporate Communications Officer with the Retirement Benefits Authority in Kenya.

In recent years, Kenya has turned to new technology to reach out to the 85 percent of the total work force that isn't covered by a registered retirement plan. The Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) hopes that the Mbao Pension Plan can help members of informal sector associations save for retirement. The plan is based on Kenya's mobile phone-based money transfer service, known as M-PESA, which allows users to deposit, withdraw, and transfer money easily with a mobile device.

We recently spoke with Patricia Odera, a Senior Corporate Communications Officer for the RBA. She explains how the plan carefully targets informal sector workers (such as metalworkers, bakers, tapestry makers, and soapstone makers). South Africa is weighing a similar plan, and several other countries (such as Afghanistan, India, and Tanzania) are in various stages of implementing mobile pension plans.

This post was first published on the Jobs Knowledge Platform.