Nairobi, April 1 -- The Treasury has lined up a series of reforms to the country's retirement benefits policy to boost access for informal, diaspora, and short-term workers, which are set to cost up to Sh255 million by December next year.

In Kenya, an estimated 3.5 million people, or 25 percent of the workforce, are covered by retirement benefit schemes, according to the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA), meaning the majority of Kenyans will retire poor. The new measures outlined in the newly published National Retirement Benefits Policy (NRBP) seek to solve multiple challenges limiting access and discouraging contribution by workers.

In the new policy, the State will spend up to Sh110 million on strategies geared towards onboarding m...