Corporate governance for pension funds in Tanzania: a comparative study of PPF and NSSF

Government-mandated pension plans exist, first and foremost, to provide some assurance of adequate incomes for citizens in retirement. The primary objective of these mandatory retirement saving programs is to ensure that workers would not face hardship in their retirement years and to ensure that government are not faced with large social welfare cost if myopic workers did not save for retirement when they were working. The broad objective of this study was to assess and make a comparison between PPF and NSSF in the context of corporative governance in their operations. The study involved two pension funds, namely NSSF and PPF. Quantitative and qualitative research approaches were used to collect information. The results were presented and discussed using the list of criteria developed in this study. Findings indicate that, while poor governance in both NSSF and PPF were observed in terms of appointing and dismissal of CEO, appointing board members, good governance was observed in terms of term of office and holding of other government officers by CEOs, policy formulation of the pension funds, types of investment, gauging the risk of investment and procedures for investment decision. Despite some little weakness observed in the pension funds in Tanzania, generally they reveal good governance in terms of their daily operations. To improve good governance of pension funds in Tanzania in their operations, the study suggests that CEO`s appointment should be done by the board of trustees instead of the president as it is currently. The tripartite representation of the board of trustees is good but should include pensioners.