Employed Namibians are being encouraged to use their pension benefits to build wealth through property investments while protecting their retirement savings.

Kuleni Financial Services, established in 2024, offers pension-backed home loan solutions that allow eligible GIPF members to finance property and manage existing home loans.

The company's Business Development Manager, Morna Ikosa, explains how members can transfer existing home loans to a pension-backed arrangement, allowing interest payments to grow their pension savings instead of enriching banks.

"It allows you to use your pension to do a takeover. So, a takeover basically means that if you say you have a home loan at the bank – let's say it's N$500,000, and one-third of your pension is also N$500,000 – you can, through the pension back-to-home loan, go to the bank and say, "I want to do a takeover. So, we pay the $500,000, you bring your home loan into your pension, and all the interest that used to enrich the banks now enriches your own pension fund. That's also one of the really good advantages. Then we also have the Hulani Umbrella Fund, which is a fantastic product for struggling businesses, SMEs, MSMEs, and SOEs that are on contract. So, basically, the Hulani Umbrella Fund works by having multiple employers under one fund, and they share the cost, the administration cost, and the actuarial cost. So, what used to be a barrier for many SMEs, who thought pensions were only for big corporates, is now addressed."

Ikosa also urges employees who resign or lose their jobs to preserve their pension savings by transferring them to another retirement fund instead of cashing out.

She says keeping savings invested for longer allows compound interest to grow retirement benefits over time.

"Usually people either transfer their pension to another retirement fund, or most of the time, they withdraw and spend it, right? So, what we are saying is that let us learn to preserve some of our money, because the more you get from it, the more time you have before you retire when you really need it; there is nothing left. And a lot of the youth say, "Ah, you know, I have a lot of time; 60 is far away. But what you don't understand is what we call the income replacement issue. What that means is that every time you cut from your pension, you reduce the potential growth period, because pension growth relies on compound interest. So, the longer it stays, the longer you say it consistently, the more you get out."

Ikosa says pension-backed home loans can also help eligible members acquire or improve property in their towns and villages while keeping their retirement savings invested, subject to the terms of the arrangement.