Nyaruguru: Where Did Our Money Go? Rumors and Explanations About the Functioning of EjoHeza
In Nyaruguru District, some residents say that they would willingly participate in saving through the EjoHeza program, but their main challenge is not knowing how much money they have deposited. They express the wish to be helped to track their contributions.
A resident named Marie Mukamurara said:
“There are people who join and contribute, but later they start wondering whether their money is really deposited in their accounts. Someone told me that they once called EjoHeza to ask how much money they had saved, and were told, ‘We don’t see any record of your funds.’ Then that person asked me, ‘Do you think our money is really being put where it’s supposed to go?’”
Another resident, Jean Damascène Habiyakare, added:
“People are interested in EjoHeza, but you’ll hear someone saying, ‘I checked my account and didn’t find my savings.’ When I also checked, I couldn’t find them either, and I was left confused about where the money we deposit actually goes. Such issues discourage people from continuing to save.”
Both residents are calling for a transparent system to confirm their EjoHeza contributions.
Habiyakare said:
“We would like to have something like a receipt showing that the money was indeed deposited into our account, instead of just being told that it’s there. We trust the system, but sometimes you check and find nothing, yet you had already contributed and you have nowhere to go for answers.”
Mukamurara also suggested creating a contact center or a phone line that people could call to inquire about the status of their savings.
She added:
“That would motivate people to keep saving. Otherwise, some end up saying, ‘We don’t even know where our money goes.’ If the process was clear and visible, even a poor person would be encouraged to save, just like in local saving groups. You could start with 200 francs today, add another 200 tomorrow and imagine how much EjoHeza could grow!”
The Vice Mayor of Nyaruguru District in charge of economic affairs, Janvier Gashema, said that from January 9 to February 9, 2023, the district was running an EjoHeza awareness campaign, which also aimed to teach residents how to check their account balances.
He explained:
“One of the reasons we initiated the EjoHeza campaign month was to address these small issues. As you know, even you might sometimes try to check your account balance and fail to see it. But what we are happy about is that people’s money is well managed. I believe that by the end of this month, those problems will have been solved.”
Gashema also urged residents not to lose trust in the program because of small technical issues such as internet access, assuring them that their money is safely kept by the national pension institution, just like the retirement savings of government employees.
EjoHeza is a voluntary digital pension fund managed as a defined contribution system, officially launched by Government of Rwanda on 14 December 2018, with the objective to increase coverage. All Rwandan residents including foreigners with a national identity number have the right to register, save to the scheme and benefit at the age of 55 years.
