The need for the scheme became urgent as it was obvious that more elderly and weak retirees would keep losing their lives and even denied their entitlements following the poor implementation of the old arrangement under the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS).
Today, a larger percentage of workers believed that since the scheme came on board under the amended Pension Reform Act 2014, hope has been restored in the system as workers and retirees arenow sure of accessing their contributions whenever the need arises according to stipulated rules.
Over time, the pension assets have grown steadily from N110.69
billion in 2006 to N6.5 trillion as at February this year with
membership growing from 1.6 million in 2006 to a little over seven
million as at the moment.The success of the scheme, which originally began with Federal
Government workers and those in the private sector, has been so loud
that even state governments have no choice than to key into it.National Pension Commission (PenCom) records also revealed that the
number of companies whose employees have so far registered is over
70,000 while over 40,000 employers with more than three employees have
largely complied with the programme.Despite this ray of hope in the system, it is unfortunate that recent
developments around the scheme appear to be posing threat not just to
the survival of the pension assets but dangerously to some current crop
of workers, whose future are obviously being toyed with.Granted that there have been pockets of complaints by some
contributors over their inability to access their funds when needed,
series of investigations have revealed that lack of understanding of how
the scheme operates and failure on the part of Fund Administrators
(PFAs) to adequately educate the contributors have been partly
responsible for the conflict.The mounting threat stems from the fact that as the assets grow steadily
since inception to the current N6.5 trillion under the meticulous
management of PFAs and strident supervision by PenCom, some government
officials and politicians alike have taken it upon themselves to
determine the direction of the funds.Essentially, those who belong to this school of thought appear to be
having a short vision of what the funds are actually meant for even with
frequent explanations especially by the immediate past Director-General
of PenCom, Mrs. Chinelo Ahonu-Amanzu, that the funds are not actually
lying idle but invested in securities as stipulated by PRA 2014.The current debate by lawmakers, who are fighting tooth and nail to
disrupt the disbursement modalities as well as overt attempt to pull
members of the Nigeria Police out of the arrangement, is another attempt
to further balkanize the scheme and defeat its purpose.The first blow dealt on it was the successful manipulation of the
Armed Forces out of it based on the peculiarity of their professional
commitment to the nation’s security arrangement.The fact that Chile where the model was duplicated also excluded its
armed forces from the scheme does not necessarily mean that everything
about theirs should be taken in hook line and sinker.This becomes very imperative considering the fact that in the case of
Chile, the police institution there is constitutionally part of the
armed forces unlike what obtains here.So attempt to appeal to sentiments that the police deserve equal
treatment like the Armed Forces only sends wrong signals and would
further amplify the gradual destruction of the scheme.
Moreover, the issue of trust and ability of some institutions to
manage their pensioners’ benefits is still very much in doubt if one
must take into cognisance the orgy of malfeasance that has greeted
pension administration in the past.Beyond the anticipated failure of the pension managers, we believe it
is too early to subject the CPS to all manner of trials just within a
period of 11 years even when it has not also shown any sign of failure.
It is in this regard that attempts being made to further vandalise
the scheme through current debate at the National Assembly over police
exclusion should be handled cautiously so as to ensure a secure future
for Nigerian workers.We also believe that what the lawmakers should concern themselves
with as regards the scheme is to strengthen the law that will compel all
employers to register their workers while also breathing down on those
who deduct workers’ contribution without remitting to any PFA.Beyond faulting the role of the lawmakers as currently being
espoused, the PFAs should also up their game in enlightening
contributors, especially those who believe their contributions can be
accessed easily, by constantly ingraining in them the fact that their
money is strictly meant to sustain them later in life, and not for
uncertain investment at the moment.
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