SIBU: The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is hoping to boost its active members in Sarawak by at least 50,000 by reaching out to the self-employed and informal workers in the state, among other initiatives.
According to EPF's Sarawak regional manager Halim Boweng, its outreach programme is aimed at covering farmers and fishermen as well as gig workers like e-hailing drivers and p-hailing riders.
"We do have a target but if we can (get the message out to) 90% of the working population above 18 years old, that will be much better," he said at the opening of the newly-renovated Sibu office on Monday (Jan 9) by EPF chairman Tan Sri Ahmad Badri Mohd Zahir.
According to Halim, the programme will kick off in Bintulu next month, followed by Kuching and Sibu in March with trucks going into places where awareness of EPF may be low.
"Previously, we focused only on those in formal employment. Now we want to widen our scope to those in the informal sector to encourage them to save for their retirement," he said.
The programme includes inculcating the saving habit among children aged 14 and above so that it will be a practice for them once they enter the job market.
He said the state EPF also hoped to increase the number of active members from 550,000 to 600,000.
"We have 950,000 members in Sarawak but only 550,000 are active, meaning they are still contributing to the fund," he added.
He explained that the inactive ones were mostly civil servants who were once members but had opted for pension benefits instead.
"However, they can still make monthly contributions (to EPF)," he added.
Halim said EPF was also grateful to the Sarawak government for agreeing to contribute an annual grant of RM4mil to finance the i-Suri programme for the 57,000 housewives, single mothers, widows and unmarried women in the state registered under the eKasih national poverty database.
