Role of social security fund scheme in enhancing the socio-economic development of Rwanda.

2.9. Economic development indicators

In order to assess the economic development of a country, geographers use economic indicators. The most important of these indicators are listed below: (RWANDA STATISTIC, 2006, p.39)

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) measures the wealth or income of a country. GDP is the total value of goods and services produced by a country in a year.

Gross National Product (GNP) is another measure of a country's wealth or income. GNP measures the total economic output of a country, including earnings from foreign investments which are not included in GDP.

GNP per capital is a country's GNP divided by its population. (Per capital means per person.)

Economic growth measures the annual increase in GDP, GNP, GDP per capita, or GNP per capital.

Inequality of wealth is an indication of the gap in wealth and income between a country's richest and poorest people. It can be measured in many ways (eg, the proportion of a country's wealth owned by the richest 10% of the population, compared with the proportion owed by the remaining 90%).

Inflation measures how much the prices of goods, services and wages are increasing each year. High inflation (above a few percent) is believed by many to be a bad thing, and suggests a government lacks control over the economy.

Unemployment is measured by the number of people who cannot find work.

Economic structure shows how a country's economy is divided between primary, secondary and tertiary industries.

2.10 Meaning of Social Security

Social security primarily refers to a social insurance program providing social protection, or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. Social security may refer to: Social insurance, where people receive benefits or services in recognition of contributions to an insurance scheme. These services typically include provision for retirement pensions, disability insurance, survivor benefits and unemployment insurance. income maintenance mainly the distribution of cash in the event of interruption of employment, including retirement, disability and unemployment services provided by administrations responsible for social security. In different countries this may include medical care, aspects of social work and even industrial relations.

These programs operate together to provide workers and then families with some monthly income when their normal flow of income shrinks because of the retirement, disability or death of the person who earned that income(Attorney Joseph Mattews, Dorothy Mattews 2008, p.11). Social security is a series of connected programs, each with its own set of rules and payment schedules. All of the programs have one thing in common: benefits are paid to a retired or disabled worker, or to the worker's dependent or surviving family based on the worker's average wages, salary, or self employment income from work covered by social security policy in place.

2.11. Saving: Social Security

Clearly, the system requires some adjustment. But most discussion of this term saving, is giving the false impression that the system is about to collapse, and the plan that recent administrations have to put forth for this salvation is the diversion of a portion of social security contributions into the stock market (CATHERINE CAPUTO, 2008; p.13). Instead of solidarity the system, however, this would only serve to weaken it, pushing people into highly risky investments that could only guarantee one thing: that hundreds of billions of retirement dollars are pumped into Wall Street and corporate coffers. Under current rules, people may claim social security retirement or dependents benefits as early as age set by the country and survivors (Holzmann R. and Stiglitz J.E, 2000, p.23)

In the purpose of making activities that assigned and contribute to the well being of the contributors, SSFR provided benefits to the pensioners and compensations of the occupational Hazard as shown in the table below: