Expanding the Pension Sector in Uganda

Uganda has to expand the coverage of the pension sector in order to deal with the rising numbers of retirees as well as the uneven coverage. The study investigates the nature of additional reforms required to expand pension coverage in the country. Specifically, the study focuses on governance and regulation, scope and coverage, efficiency, and competitiveness with specific reference to national social security, fiscal burden of the public pension scheme, and entry of new players in the pension space. The methodology used includes analysis of national household surveys and administrative data on public pension scheme, document reviews, key stakeholder interviews as well as reviews of other country case studies. Pension coverage is low at about 9.3 percent of total employed Ugandans in both the formal and informal sectors, but mainly in the formal sector. With regard to the non-contributory public pension scheme, the fiscal burden has reached an unsustainable level with cumulative arrears of about UGX 516 billion by 2016. At the same time, governance and regulation continue to affect the effectiveness and efficiency of the national pension system and warrants further reforms.