Fisheries contributing K21mil

By DALE LUMA
THE total savings contributions to the National Superannuation Fund (Nasfund) from the fisheries sector is valued at K21 million, says chief executive officer Ian Tarutia.
Tarutia highlighted this yesterday during the signing of an agreement between Nasfund and the National Fisheries Authority (NFA).
He said Nasfund had 27 organisations in the fisheries sector contributing to it.
He said this was only a small segment of the sector and there was opportunity to expand the coverage.
“For Nasfund we have 27 organisations involved in the fisheries sector. Most of them are primarily in the manufacturing side. We have big organisations that are foreign owned but here employing people,” Tarutia said.
“It terms of the numbers, there’s over 27,000 Papua New Guineans contributing that are employed by these 27 entities with a value of K21 million in superannuation savings.
“That’s just a small segment of our people. With this arrangement and the opportunities that working with NFA will provide, our hope is that we can expand the coverage to more than just our people working in the factories, canning and loining, but out in the villages who are able to sell directly to a supplier and offshore.”
Tarutia said the fund could help people in terms of how they were involved in direct activities and how they made and saved through the products such as Eda savings.
“On Eda Super, it’s a voluntary scheme that sits outside of the mandatory compulsory saving that the Superannuation Act that governs us requires employers who employ more than 15 to contribute.”
He said the fund hoped to increase the membership from this sector to more than 35,000 individuals and over K61 million in contributions.