The pension debate has been going on for quite some time now, with beneficiaries crying foul at the unrealistic payments they receive after decades of service. To be sincere, it is peanuts. The crux of the matter is that as years went by, so did inflation. Just slightly more than two decades ago, a senior civil servant earned not more than Rwf30,000 a month and it was enough to cater for all household needs. Today, the average middle income earnings are tenfold that amount, and so have been the remittances to the National Social Security Board (RSSB) that succeeded Caisse Sociale. The senior citizens have been lobbying the government to revise their benefits that are not commensurate with today’s cost of living, which is far from how it stood 20 years ago. Another point they raise is that as retirees, some of whom earn less than $100 a month, do not qualify to benefit from social security programmes such as Ubudehe and Gir’inka aimed at uplifting the poor, and cannot even afford mortgages for houses built by RSSB that did not include them in the equation. All that can be achieved without making a dent in RSSB’s portfolio, yet it will give loyal servants a deserved send-off in recognition for a job well done in building our country over the years. Parliament should redo the math and come up with a realistic figure. The social security contributions by the retirees helped build RSSB into the financial giant it is today. It is only fair that they share some of their many years of sweat.
