Tambatamba calls for concerted efforts in extension of social security coverage to the informal sector

LABOUR and Social Security Minister Brenda Tambatamba has called for more concerted efforts in ensuring that social security coverage is extended to the informal sector unlike the current situation where only the formal sector is covered.

Ms Tambatamba has charged that currently, the labour force surveys indicate that Zambia’s informal economy is a larger contributor to employment than the formal economy.

She has observed that this trend is shown in the data from the 2019, 2020 and 2021 labour force survey reports which show that informal employment accounts for an average of 73.7 percent.

The Minister observed that there are millions of people today who are working without any form of social security adding that most of these people are conducting their trade in the informal sector which is a key driver of economic growth in many developing countries like Zambia and other members of East and Central Africa Social Security Association (ECASSA).

This was contained in a speech ready on her behalf by Southern Province Minister Cornelius Mweetwa at the official opening of the 13th ECASSA conference on social protection for policy makers in Livingstone.

She added that the emergency of the Covid-19 pandemic has now shown that member states need to focus on risk mitigation at all stages of managing social security and change the way of doing business in order to serve our members better.

And incoming ECASSA Chairperson who is NAPSA Director General Muyangwa Muyangwa observed the need for collaboration among member states.

In a speech ready on his behalf NAPSA Director Business Strategy Romie Kameya, Mr Muyangwa said that extension of social security is critical if more people are supposed to be covered.

He said that more needs to be done to ensure many people are covered and was quick to state that efforts are being made to achieve social security for all.

The conference is being held under the theme, “towards extension of coverage and management of catastrophic risks.”