SSB Says BEL Investment Falling Short of Expected Returns

The Social Security Board is not seeing the level of returns it would ideally like from some of its key investments, and according to its Finance Department, Belize Electricity Limited is among those underperforming assets.  Those revelations were made this morning during a two-hour Media Mixer hosted by the SSB at its headquarters in Belmopan, where senior officials provided updates on the fund’s performance, modernization efforts, and long-term sustainability.  General Manager for Finance, Leo Vasquez, highlighted the growing importance of strong investment returns, noting that the Board currently pays out approximately eight million dollars monthly in long-term pensions alone, excluding other benefits such as sickness and maternity.  Vasquez pointed out that not all investments are yielding as expected, specifically identifying Belize Electricity Limited as one area where returns have fallen below projections. He stressed that this underscores the urgency for the SSB to strengthen and diversify its investment portfolio to ensure the fund remains sustainable over the long term.

Nicolyn Raymond, Sr. Manager, Strategy and Executive Service: “Over the past few years, we have been able to address or provide a whistleblower program that allows for secure and confidential submissions of any concern that the public or staff might have. The program is available online. In relation to ethics management, we continue to be focused on executing our responsibilities in accordance with chapter 44 of the Laws of Belize, the Social Security Act. Corporate Governance and Publications and Reporting. On our website, we have been focused on being transparent and publishing our annual reports, actuary reviews as well as we continue to provide updates on our annual reports. The most recent publication is that of our 2024 Actuary Review as well as our 2024 Audited Financials. We continue to work on the upcoming 2025 annual report that should be available later on in the year. The aspect of digital transformation and smart services, which is the second component of scheme modernization, we have been able to launch our mobile app. We continue to see increased downloads and accessibility to the app. There are quite a number of features in there that our contributors and other stakeholders find very useful, so we continue to encourage persons to utilize the app to answer questions as well as find out more information about their account within Social Security.”

Also presenting at the session was Nicolyn Raymond, Senior Manager for Strategy and Executive Services, who outlined progress under the SSB’s 2025–2029 Strategic Plan. She pointed to improvements in governance, enhanced reporting structures, and the rollout of digital services aimed at increasing efficiency and access for contributors.  Raymond explained that modernization efforts include expanding online access to benefits such as sickness, maternity, and retirement claims, as well as laying the groundwork for legislative reform.

“Every year starting last year, we are proposing legislative amendments, but it’s not just to propose these amendments and move in enacting these into law. We must respect the process of legislative reform. Therefore we have to contact our stakeholders or for them to understand what are the changes as well as to have buy-in before we move forward. So that allows us to have, to conduct a series of stakeholder consultations to discuss the proposed amendments. The past three months headed by our CEO, Mr. Jerome Palma as the presenter, we had a total of 19 consultations countrywide. We touched actually over 1,000 participants throughout the country. After each session we had a survey where all participants had a QR code and they logged in and they managed to participate in the survey. We had one out of every four participants responding to the survey. I just want to reemphasize, as I mentioned by Nicolyn, the topics that were covered. We have three topics, three main topics covered during these consultations. The first being the, what we refer to as the legislative reform number one, which is the shift from the current wage band system to a percentage-based system. But that cannot be done alone. It has to go as well with the revisiting the contribution rate split between employers and employees that is currently in existence and discussing what are the possible options moving forward. The third topic was the what we dubbed as the Contribution Reform Number Two which is raising the contribution floor from the minimum right now $55 to $130.”

Meanwhile, General Manager for Research and Development, Leticia Vega, shared insights from nationwide consultations on proposed reforms to the scheme. She revealed that nineteen group consultations have been conducted over the past three months, engaging a wide cross-section of stakeholders including employers, unions, and government representatives.  According to Vega, discussions have focused on transitioning to a percentage-based contribution system, revisiting contribution rates, and increasing the contribution floor as part of broader efforts to modernize the scheme.

Leo Vasquez, General Manager (Finance): “Besides contribution revenue, we must also focus on investment income which then requires us to invest to get the stable portfolio and performance remains stable. That really drives to some of our equity investors, the BEL is not currently performing to the level we would want but in spite of their non-performance we have to find investments that give us that yield. In order to maintain that 15% annual revenue of 500 million investments we must focus on capital preservation meaning the equity investments. We also, in terms of steady income, we must get that from our bonds and debentures and must continue to yield annual year-on-year returns. Shift in diversification, which I will explain a little bit right now in terms of the Hydro Belize which in terms of the energy generation is new for us. This approach really speaks to every investment that we focus on whether it’s a shares investment or a debenture must go through analysis, talk about credit score. We must look at balance sheet, income statement, cash flows, projections. So before it goes to the CEO, it goes to the investment committee, gets approved by the board, must go through that disciplined approach. Again, we want to reduce our risk. Everything in life is a risk but in terms of our investments we have to go through the approach before we even present it to the investment committee.”

The Media Mixer concluded with an interactive session with the press./