Laptrust rebrands as it adopts regional face
What you need to know:
- Organisation seeks to invest in new areas
- Laptrust will now be known as the County Pension Fund (CPF) and will run the county employees’ pension.
- Key areas of investments that CPF is targeting rare infrastructure, county government bonds, street lights and housing.
The Local Authorities Pension Trust (Laptrust) has been re-branded into a county fund to reflect its new mandate.
Laptrust, which has been managing pensions for local authorities, will now be known as the County Pension Fund (CPF) and will run the county employees’ pension.
The new outfit will cater for over 250,000 employees in the counties.
Mr Hosea Kili, the chief executive officer of CPF, said the move had been necessitated by the current confusion between the county and national government over who should settle remittances amounting to billions of shillings owed to pension funds after devolution.
“County governments have been slow to make remittances to Laptrust since March last year, with Nairobi County leading in debt,” said Mr Kili.
The CPF has accumulated savings of over Sh24 billion after nearly a century of catering for local authorities’ employees. Over Sh100 million of the savings will be invested in rebranding in the next three years.
The change has been approved by the Devolution ministry, the National Treasury and Retirement Benefits Authority. Currently, the scheme has 30,000 members, but it hopes a foray into the counties will increase the number to 120,000.
Key areas of investments that CPF is targeting rare infrastructure, county government bonds, street lights and housing.
MAJOR INITIATIVES
So far, offices already exist in Mombasa, Kisumu, Nairobi, Central, Garissa and Eldoret. Major initiatives to transform labour in the branches will follow as expansions cover the rest of the counties.
“We are now aligning the fund with the needs of county governments. The changes will bring in governors, speakers, county assembly members, county secretaries and staff of all the counties. This will boost the scheme with a Sh22 billion value,” said Mr Kili.
The organisation’s 5,000 senior citizens receive pensions from the fund with payouts ranging between Sh3,000 and Sh200,000 a month. The scheme also offers funeral insurance and a National Hospital Insurance Fund card, which covers their spouses.
