Edgar Brandt
WINDHOEK – During the next five years the Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF), whose total assets under management are now about N$113 billion, will take considerable steps to become a leading and model pension fund in the global arena. This is in line with GIPF’s newly adopted five-year strategic plan, which came into effect on April 1, 2018 and will run until 2023.
According to GIPF CEO, David Nuyoma, the fund’s Board of Trustees, together with management and staff, will collectively chart the path towards attainment of this goal.
“The Strategic Plan builds on the successes of the past five years, which witnessed the attainment of many key milestones and also presented challenges and opportunities for further growth and improvement. It further aims to facilitate and ensure the attainment of the GIPF vision by highlighting the critical strategic areas that the fund will consistently focus on over the next five years,” said Nuyoma during the fund’s Annual Stakeholder Consultative Meeting that took place in Windhoek yesterday.
Nuyoma noted that the four adopted themes for the new Strategic Plan are underpinned by a common intent to deliver socio-economic impact and shared value, particularly for Namibian stakeholders.
The first theme focuses on the sustainability of the fund, which Nuyoma said is of paramount importance in order to ensure solvency and create lasting socio-economic impact. “The overall sustainability of the fund remains a key priority in order to ensure that the GIPF may continue to meet the immediate and long-term obligations of its members,” he said.
The second theme is ‘Outcome-based Governance, Risk and Compliance’, which relates to how GIPF will institutionalise a governance culture that strives to achieve the true and intended outcomes of good governance principles and practices.
Said Nuyoma: “We aspire to uphold high standards of governance in respect of effective leadership, risk management, IT governance, regulatory compliance governance and sound financial and responsible investment governance.”
The third theme, ‘Excellent Service’, which is also one of the fund’s core values, is being aggressively implemented during the first year of the new plan plan. “Under this theme we will strive to deliver positive and professional interactions with our members and stakeholders in a manner that is right, fast and humane. The members are at the core of the drive to continuously enhance operational efficiency within the fund’s processes and service offerings. The fund will therefore aim to streamline and improve internal processes in order to deliver outstanding service to members. As a result of this strategic move, the fund plans to embrace innovative technologies and digital transformation initiatives,” Nuyoma explained.
The final and forth theme of the new Strategic Plan is ‘Employer of Choice’. “The GIPF takes pride in fostering an ideal working environment for skilled and engaged professionals, and the fund is taking considerable steps towards establishing a high-performance culture to ensure that GIPF remains a competitive and industry-leading employer,” said Nuyoma.
Also speaking at the annual engagement, Chairperson of the GIPF Board of Trustees, Goms Menette, revealed that GIPF has made the necessary investments to implement its Business Process Improvement (BPI) project, which is spearheaded by the fund’s Operations Department.
“The purpose of this initiative is geared towards bringing about effectiveness and efficiency of processes across the entire service supply chain of the fund. It’s an entire re-engineering of how we do things. From the time it takes to process claims, to reducing backlog claims as well as streamlining information sharing between GIPF and its stakeholders. This process will also involve automation and the introduction of techno-savvy and user-friendly applications for the convenience of our members in accessing and sharing information,” said Menette.