Unclaimed benefits of N$229 million in construction industry, notes pension fund

The Namibia Building Workers Pension Fund (NBWPF) says pension benefits totaling N$229.1 million remain unclaimed from 2022.

According to a NBWPF report, this is approximately 2 500 unclaimed benefits.

The report reveals that a large number of unclaimed benefits are in the construction sector.

NBWPF executive principal officer Enwich Kazondu says one of the biggest challenges is members who exited the fund becoming untraceable, despite efforts to reach them. In addition, some members have not updated beneficiary forms.

The fund initiated a tracing process for unclaimed members in September 2023, he says.

“Since then, over 1 900 members have been located, and payments have been successfully made to more than 800 of them,” Kazondu says.

According to Kazondu, the fund is actively working to trace the unclaimed group members’ beneficiaries.

“Ultimately, we want our stakeholders to know and trust that we make every effort to ensure that claim benefits are paid out either to the retiring members themselves or to their determined beneficiaries,” Kazondu says.

In addition, the NBWPF encourages those who worked in the construction sector and made pension fund contributions but had failed to claim the benefits, to get in touch with the fund immediately.