PETALING JAYA: Forty out of 100 Malaysians do not have any retirement coverage, said EPF chief executive officer Ahmad Zulqarnain Onn.
According to New Straits Times, Ahmad Zulqarnain said in Malaysia, out of every 100 people, 60 were covered by a formal retirement scheme.
“Of these, around 50 are under the EPF, and about 10 are covered by the civil service pension scheme,” he was reported as saying.
He added that the remaining figure was not covered by retirement schemes as they generally work in the informal sectors, or are migrant workers or work on something called contract for service, as opposed to contract off service.
“Over time, we aim to increase coverage in Malaysia through voluntary measures and eventually, through legislative means. This is crucial, as we should be targeting 80 per cent to 90 per cent coverage as a country, rather than the current 60 per cent,“ he said.
Ahmad Zulqarnain shared that EPF was currently offering numerous outreach programmes to encourage more Malaysians to register and open EPF accounts.
These include allowing voluntary contributions, running financial literacy initiatives and enhancing the i-Akaun app for better user experience.
He said that children as young as 14 years, were able to open an account with EPF and that more parents have been starting to save for their children’s retirement.
He explained that around 12 per cent of monthly contributions now come from voluntary channels, compared to the previous 100 per cent from mandatory contributions, adding that the 12 per cent is also growing year-on-year.
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