MRS. AISHA DAHIR-UMAR
OPENING REMARKS BY MRS. AISHA DAHIR-UMAR, ACTING DIRECTOR-GENERAL, NATIONAL PENSION COMMISSION AT THE PRE-RETIREMENT WORKSHOP FOR FGN RETIREES (DUE TO RETIRE IN 2019) UNDER THE CONTRIBUTORY PENSION SCHEME (CPS)
Protocols
1. Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, I am delighted to welcome you to this important sensitization Workshop organized for intending retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS). We consider contributors who are about to join the CPS retirees as very important stakeholders.
2. On behalf of the Management and staff of the Commission, I wish to convey our profound appreciation to you for finding it worthwhile to honor our invitation to attend this Pre-Retirement Workshop. Your presence today heightens the confidence you repose in PenCom as the Regulator of pensions in Nigeria.
3.Distinguished participants, you would recall that one of the salient objectives of the Pension Reform Act (PRA 2014) is to make pension administration transparent and seamless. Accordingly, the Commission has established uniform set of rules, regulations and standards for all aspects of pension administration, including payment of retirement benefits to retirees. This was achieved in the case of the latter, through issuance the Regulation on Administration of Retirement and Terminal Benefits; Regulation on Retire Life Annuity; the Frameworks on Pension Enhancement & Programmed Withdrawals; and the Circular on Voluntary Contributions amongst others.
4.As part of our annual regulatory activities, the Commission has finalised arrangements to commence the verification of prospective retirees who would be retiring in year 2019 from the public service. The verification exercise is scheduled to be undertaken from 25th June, to 17 August, 2018 in 15 centers across the country. The impending exercise, therefore, necessitated the need to undertake adequate sensitization and public enlightenment in order to prepare prospective retirees on the steps to take towards a hitch free retirement life.
5. Papers will be presented on three topics. These are Enrolment Exercise and Documentation Requirements, Accessing Retirement and Terminal Benefits under the CPS and Life after Retirement. It is our hope that the Workshop would educate participants on what they need to know on documentation requirements, payment of retirement benefits and life after retirement.
6. We are therefore, looking forward to fruitful deliberations at this workshop tailored towards addressing the challenges that prospective retirees might face as they enter retirement life under the CPS. Please, feel free to make suggestions during and after these workshops, about issues that may further help to make retirement life more comfortable to you and future retirees.
7.Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I would want to conclude by reminding us that the achievements recorded by the Commission in the last fourteen years would not have been possible without the support and understanding of all stakeholders, especially you, our esteemed contributors who are about to retiree. I therefore urge you to contribute positively towards the success of the Pension Reform Programme and wish you all a successful Pre-Retirement Workshop.
Thank you and God bless.
1
