Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said that the value of social insurance and pensions will reach EGP 45trn until 2068.
He pointed out that more than EGP 558bn has been transferred to pension funds since 2019, and that during the current fiscal year, about EGP 191bn was allocated for pensions.
During the opening of the 6th Arab Conference on Retirement and Social Security, held under the theme “Prospects of Arab Pension Systems for the Year 2050 – Change and Opportunities” in Sharm El-Sheikh, Maait said that the exceptional circumstances in the global economy will not discourage the state from fulfilling its obligations towards pensioners, and working to improve their living conditions.
Maait said that the Egyptian experience in reforming the pension system was based on several precautionary hypotheses and foundations that allowed a reduction in the contributions of the insured and established mechanisms to increase pensions annually based on the rate of inflation, as well as achieve a balance between wages before retirement and pensions. He noted that the value of pensions provided to 10.5 million retirees increased by about 70% from 2018 to 2022.
He stressed that Egypt was able to make a historical achievement of a pioneering experience in reforming the pension and social security system. This all comes within the process of construction and development that paves the way for a new country based on providing a decent life for all citizens, especially elderly individuals. This is despite all global economic challenges, and the consequent sharp inflationary wave, as well as an unprecedented rise in the prices of basic commodities such as wheat, petroleum products and services as well, and the pressures they impose on the budgets of various countries, especially developing economies.
He pointed out that the recurrence of international crises has a negative impact on the performance of the global economy. Naturally, this requires an expansion in extending the umbrella of social protection, which makes it crucial to tackle the file of pensions and social security which has been having complexities that accumulated for over 50 years.
He explained that the government has been working on reforming this system with a comprehensive and integrated concept, reflected in issuing the Social Insurance and Pensions Law No. 148 of 2019, which is a unified insurance umbrella for all categories of beneficiaries, including the same risks covered before in laws with multiple categories.
According to Maait, this law contributed to solving the vast majority of problems that the pension and social security system had been experiencing for more than 50 years by signing an agreement to resolve financial entanglements between the Ministry of Finance and the pension system. This helps provide strong financial solvency of this system now and in the future, in order to sustain the ability to fulfil all future obligations towards pensioners and beneficiaries to improve their living conditions.
