The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas expects to achieve the target of having five million contributors to the Personal Equity and Retirement Account or PERA by 2025 through digitalization.
Governor Benjamin Diokno said in presentation that PERA remained underutilized, with only 1,586 contributors.
“Since its implementation in December 2016, the PERA industry has not gained significant momentum. As of July 29, 2020, only 1,586 Filipinos had been investing in PERA, with total contributions of P137 million,” he said.
Data showed that of the total contributors, 1,099 or 69 percent were locally employed, 273 or 17 percent were overseas Filipino workers and 214 or 14 percent were self-employed. On average, OFWs have higher contributions at P110,000; local employed workers at P82,000; and the self-employed at P76,000.
“These figures remain regrettably low,” Diokno said. “After laying the foundation of a digital ecosystem for PERA, we are targeting to reach 5 million Filipinos in a period of 5 years, or what we call ‘5 in 5.’ The target seems ambitious. But with more than 40 million locally employed Filipinos prior to the pandemic and around 2.2 million overseas Filipino workers, I am optimistic that this goal is easily attainable,” Diokno said.