Public Sector Employees’ Perceptions of Retirement Benefits in Kabwe District, Zambia

Retirement security remains a pressing concern across Sub-Saharan Africa, where statutory pension schemes frequently struggle with adequacy, fairness, and administrative efficiency, and in Zambia the National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA) administers retirement benefits for formal employees, yet empirical evidence on how public sector employees perceive its adequacy, fairness, and administration remains limited. A convergent mixed-methods design combined a cross-sectional survey of 380 public sector employees across primary schools, secondary schools, health facilities, district offices, and municipal services in Kabwe District. The respondents were stratified and systematically sampled, with the Cochran formula setting the sample size at a 95% confidence level and 5% margin of error, with 3semi-structured interviews and four employee focus groups. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square tests of association, and qualitative transcripts thematically coded following Braun and Clarke’s (2006) framework. The study found that pension literacy was uneven, with only 38% demonstrating knowledge of claim documentation requirements and senior staff scoring higher than junior staff, 65% considered benefits insufficient and 70% doubted payout predictability; administrative bottlenecks were widespread (payroll mismatches 65%, incomplete documentation 58%, claim delays 62%); 55% found communication materials unclear, largely owing to the absence of local-language translation; and reform preferences converged on decentralisation (66%), digital payroll integration (61%), simplified communication (59%), and capacity building (55%). These pension literacy gaps, perceptions of inadequacy, and administrative inefficiencies are associated with diminished trust in NAPSA, which employees and unions treat as a matter of institutional legitimacy rather than technical detail. The study provides employee-centred evidence that strengthening retirement security in Zambia depends not only on actuarial adjustment but on integrated reforms combining transparency, payroll modernisation, localised communication, and inclusive engagement, contributing to social-security reform debates in developing economies.