Fears mount over likely rise in prices as experts predict inflationary trend, with coming of new NAPSA law

Business and financial expert, Augustine Mubanga, fears that the signing into law of the National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA) partial pension benefit will fuel high inflation in Zambia.

Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema had on Monday signed into law a NAPSA bill to allow for employees to access 20 percent of their pension contributions.

Mubanga said there was a need to cautiously implement the new NAPSA law to avoid hyped inflation.

“Prices are susceptible to speculations, traders will no doubt start adjusting prices of goods and services thus causing high inflation in
the country, we should devise mechanisms to cure that,” he said in an interview on Wednesday.

Mubanga, the former Association of Mine and Suppliers (AMSC) president argued that beneficiaries of NAPSA pension benefits would be tempted to increase their expenditure, thus heightening inflation.

“More buying by those who will access the NAPSA will also cause inflation, so the expectations are very high that the rate of inflation will also be very high in the country if left unchecked,” he said.

Mubanga said there was a need to educate beneficiaries in terms of spending to curtail inflation in the country.

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