Borrowing from the funeral grant, at zero per cent: 7,000 retirees have drawn K90 million from NAPSA's advance

More than 7,000 retirees have drawn over K90 million from the National Pension Scheme Authority's interest-free advance facility, NAPSA chief executive Muyangwa Muyangwa has disclosed — and the number is growing daily.

Speaking at a media workshop in Siavonga, Muyangwa said the advance, available to the roughly 34,000 retirees on the NAPSA payroll, answers a long-standing complaint: that monthly pension payouts are too small to meet retirees' needs. The design borrows from a benefit that previously only paid out after death. Every NAPSA member carries a funeral grant, currently about K22,000 and adjusted upwards each year. "Instead of keeping that money for post-life, can people start accessing that money?" Muyangwa said. "They are actually getting it against the funeral grant, but there is no interest."

Retirees can draw up to 75 per cent of the grant as an advance, recovered through a small monthly deduction from the pension so that the monthly cheque keeps coming. Once the advance is fully recovered — after about 18 months, or when the funeral grant is adjusted in the new year — it can be accessed again. "It is an easier way of providing interest-free money instead of them going to do Kaloba," he said, using the street term for high-cost informal loans. "We don't allow them to borrow the whole amount so that they can still have their monthly cheque."

Access is deliberately remote: the advance is claimed online through the eNAPSA portal. "You don't need to come to NAPSA. You just need to log into eNAPSA and you will find it shows that you can push a button and claim your advance," he said, conceding that many retirees struggled with the portal at first and that the Authority has since put in support. "Whatever we can do to make sure there is dignity in retirement, we shall work on it as NAPSA."

Muyangwa also put a number on the bigger withdrawal scheme: NAPSA has paid out more than K11 billion to over 600,000 members under the 20 per cent pre-retirement partial withdrawal benefit. Delays and rejections in some claims, he said, trace back to accounts that are not clean — missing contributions, double contributions, and cases of members sharing national registration cards.

Sources: Lusaka Times, "Over 7,000 retirees access NAPSA interest-free advance facility" (24 Sep 2026); ZNBC, "NAPSA Pays 7,000 Interest-Free Advances" (25 Sep 2026); ZANIS (25 Sep 2026).