Social security systems around the world face a ‘polycrisis’: ageing populations, expanding informal labour markets, and rapid digital disruption at an unprecedented scale, all dramatically changing the retirement landscape.
According to the International Social Security Association’s (ISSA) Social Security Developments and Trends – Global 2025 report, Africa continues to hold the position of the world’s youngest continent, with a median age below 20.
The report notes that Africa should be urgently investing in opportunities for its youthful population, cautioning that it must also start preparing for an ageing future that is inevitable.
The challenge of youth unemployment and future pension adequacy requires foresight. Notably, the report shows that informality, which averages 80 percent of the African workforce, severely undermines pension coverage and fiscal sustainability.
Millions of Africans, particularly in the informal sector, fall into the ‘missing middle,’ or are excluded from both contributory and tax-financed systems.
This dual reality is echoed in other studies. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Working Paper on Pensions in Africa (Stewart and Yermo), underscores that most African pension systems are still in their nascent stages, characterised by low coverage, limited administrative capacity and fragmented regulatory frameworks.
Kenya’s Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA) 2024 report, Securing Tomorrow: Key Findings on the State of Kenya’s Retirement Benefits Sector, highlights the urgency of reforms to expand coverage and leverage pension assets as a driver of domestic investment.
In Zimbabwe, the Insurance and Pensions Commission’s 2025 sector review draws attention to how macro-economic volatility continues to erode pension adequacy, emphasising the need for regional stability and policy harmonisation.
Retirement security has acquired unparalleled urgency across the continent, with pension schemes holding not only retirees’ dignity but also pushing to be among the engines of sustainable economic development and inclusive growth.
A clear rationale exists for a Pan-African pensions dialogue. There is need for collective solutions in creating investment linkages, sharing data, harmonising regulatory frameworks and innovations that expand coverage and improve scheme governance.
The Public Service Superannuation Fund-led Pan-African Pensions Conference will emphasise the call for resilient systems that can anticipate and adapt to shocks by strengthening governance frameworks, investing in robust data systems and building crisis-ready organisations, able to maintain continuity of benefits under any circumstance.
Through cross-country collaboration, African funds can share strategies for risk management, digital continuity and inter-agency coordination-themes ISSA identifies as crucial to institutional resilience.
This dialogue builds on the experience and initiatives of other pension players, including the just-concluded All Africa Pensions Summit 2025 hosted by the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) Uganda.
The Summit flagged Africa’s development financing gaps at the tune of $1.3 trillion, with pension capital across the continent estimated at between $700 billion. The core proposals focused on the mobilisation of this pension capital as a strategic engine for infrastructure, energy, industrialisation and affordable housing.
One of the most striking insights from ISSA’s Global 2025 report is the persistent coverage gap: now that more than half of the world’s population enjoys at least one social protection benefit, Africa lags far behind, with only 19 percent of people accessing any form of social protection compared with over 80 percent in Europe.
To that end, one of the major challenges-but also an opportunity for Africa lies in the expansion of pension coverage in the informal sector. Some new models already offer replicable blueprints, such as Kenya’s Haba Haba micro-pension scheme or Rwanda’s Ejo Heza long-term savings platform.
The Pan-African Pensions Conference seeks to spur peer learning and cross-border replication of such innovations, informed by ISSA’s global evidence on extending coverage through mobile payments, simplified registration and flexible contributions.
In essence, the core of the Pan-African Pensions Conference is shared learning and continental solidarity. Indeed, ISSA research indicates that regions that institutionalise collaboration through multilateral social security agreements and learning platforms, have greater modernisation and expansion of coverage.
However, Africa still lags behind other regions, with only 18 percent of countries participating in multilateral social security agreements.
The conference accordingly seeks to reverse this through the promotion of dialogue on portable pensions, bilateral agreements and harmonised policy frameworks, that would make it possible for African workers to retain their benefits across borders.
In a continent so affected by migration, regional integration and cross-border employment, portability allows for equity and inclusion.
As such, the PSSF Pan-African Pensions Conference is part of a larger global movement aligned with ISSA’s call for “strong institutions capable of harnessing technology and human capital to extend protection to all,” seeing social security not as a cost but a strategic investment in stability, productivity and dignity.
Taking a cue from the ISSA Global 2025 report, the message is straightforward: if pension schemes are to remain relevant, then they need to change with the times.
In the case of Africa, this change is collaborative, forward-looking and uniquely African, blending traditional solidarity with modern governance and innovation.