Members of the National Labour Advisory Board met yesterday, August 20, 2013 during the 16th session to examine two draft decrees on the National Social Insurance Scheme.

Opening the meeting on behalf of the Minister of Labour and Social Security, the Inspector General of Labour and Social Security, John Yerwoh Forchu, said the aim of the gathering, was to seek ways of extending social insurance benefits to workers in the informal and liberal sectors in Cameroon.

The first draft decree examined by members of the National Labour Advisory Board had to do with the extension of the social insurance system to cover the informal sector and liberal professionals such as lawyers, architects and independent rural workers. For now, the text in application covers only workers of the formal sector and does not take into consideration the informal economy.

The Board also reviewed the limit level for Social Insurance contribution. For now, the law states that the salary limit is FCFA 300,000 and if someone earns FCFA one million, that person's social insurance contribution will be made only on FCFA 300,000. According to the Inspector General, this affects workers when they go on retirement because while on retirement, social insurance will pay them only 50 per cent of FCFA 300,000. "This is quite difficult for certain workers, reason why the upward limit of salary taken into consideration when calculating pension benefits should be reviewed", John Forchu noted.

As of now only 10 per cent of the working population of Cameroonians is covered by the social insurance and the objective of the session is to extend the social insurance coverage to 30 per cent of the working population of Cameroonians which are not only those working with the public service.