President William Ruto has emphasised the importance of inculcating the saving culture as Kenyans and a nation.
Speaking in Nairobi during a church service at the Friends Church Quakers Donholm, Ruto said increasing contributions to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) kitty has seen the country double the amount saved in just two months.
This is after the law that was requiring employees and employers to contribute Sh200 to the kitty was changed to six percent of the salary two months ago.
“We must be a country that thinks about tomorrow. I want to tell you the good news; in just two months we have doubled the amount of money that we are saving as a country,” Ruto said on Sunday.
“I want to promise you that we will build a big fund so that instead of us borrowing from friends and other countries we will be doing how they are doing; they borrow money from their own people and pay them interest that we pay those that have lend us money,” he added.
Ruto noted that Kenya is still far from achieving what other countries are doing but said it will be achievable as Kenyans had agreed to walk the journey together.
He said that currently, Kenya is only at eight percent of the GDP in terms of saving while other countries are at 40 and 50 with others like China being at 55 percent.
“That is the country we want to build….that is the culture of saving we want to build as a county. We need to travel that journey as Kenyans so that we can have a firm foundation for our economy.”
Last month, NSSF acting managing trustee and CEO David Mwangangi explained the government's move to increase NSSF rates.
Mwangangi said this is meant to improve the saving culture of the country.
"We want to increase savings in the country. Once we increase our savings we have more money within our country for development," he said.
Mwangangi said Kenyans will be able to increase their benefits once they retire adding that once Kenyans can increase their savings, there will be more benefits.
He said that the goal is for Kenyans to retire with dignity and support themselves.
