Smare leaves fund’s chairmanship after six years

Nambawan Super chairman Anthony Smaré yesterday announced he has stepped down as chairman of the fund upon conclusion of his six-year term.
Reg Monagi is the new chairman.
“I was appointed a director of the fund in 2012, and in 2013, I was appointed acting chairman when Sir Nagora Bogan stepped down as chair before I was formally confirmed in 2014,” Smare said.
“As per the tenure rules of maximum six year terms in the prudential standards, my term as chair must come to an end,” he said.
“In 2013, the fund was not looked upon favourably in the marketplace.
“The fund did not enjoy the confidence and trust of its members and its stakeholders, and there was widely a perception of poor service and performance.
“We have had to engineer a turnaround to win back the trust and support of our members and to deliver on the extraordinary potential of the fund to drive the growth of the country and create and sustain wealth for our members.”
Smare said the fund’s assets grew from K3.7 billion in 2013 to over K8 billion last year.
“Adding K3 billion in profit to our members accounts, while paying out K2.3 billion in withdrawals to retired members,” he said.
“We have assisted 14,000 members with housing advances of over K206 million.
“To top it off, we declared record profit of K504 million last year which was all credited to members’ accounts.
“We have achieved these outstanding returns for our members in a period of significant economic challenge for our country.
“We have also improved and expanded our branch networks, established an efficient call center, increased member engagement, launched a mobile app, improved risk mitigation, deployed technology and trained staffed to ensure that processes that previously took months for members now take 24 hours, and modernised the brand and engagement strategies.”