From left: Chris Battaglia CEO WPS/Vice President Pension & Investment; Director General PenCom; Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and founder World Pension Summit Netherlands; Harry Smorenberg during the opening of the 2016 World Pension Summit ‘Africa Special’ held today in Abuja.
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Chuks Udo Okonta
President Muhammadu Buhari has applauded the National Pension Commission (PenCom) for working assiduously to extend the pension net to cover the informal sector under the micro pension.
The President, who was represented by the Head of The Civil Service of the Federation , Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita said this on Tuesday at the ongoing World Pension Summit Africa Special in Abuja, adding that the implementation, the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) has to a large extent stabilised our pension administration system.
Buhari noted that while the former model of pension was mainly adopted by the advanced countries, developing countries including many African countries opted for the CPS model, stressing that interestingly, the nation is beginning to see some developed countries also gravitating towards the Contributory Pension Scheme.
“In the case of Nigeria, in 2004 we established the Contributory Pension Scheme, due to its obvious advantages, including its sustainability as a system, robust framework that eliminates incentives for corruption and its ability to generate investible long term funds that drive economic development. It is noteworthy that within 12 years of its implementation, the Contributory Pension Scheme has to a large extent stabilised our pension administration system.
“For instance, before the reform, Nigeria had huge pension liabilities in trillions of naira but now the Contributory Pension Scheme has generated over N5.83 trillion worth of pension assets as at 20 June 2016 which are invested in various sectors of the Nigerian economy. I believe that other African countries that have embarked on pension reforms share similar experiences with Nigeria.
“We have also embarked upon extending the coverage of the Contributory Pension Scheme to employees of State and Local Governmentin line with the provisions of the PRA 2014. Most state governments have adopted the scheme and are at levels of implementation. Our pensions regulator, PenCom, is working assiduously to extend the net to cover the informal sector under the micro pension,” he said.
He said PenCom has been asked to step up its enforcement drive to ensure full compliance by public and private sector institutions in line with the enabling law, stressing that part of the commitments of his administration is to ensure that within its scarce resources available to it, inherited outstanding pension liabilities of the federal government is being addressed.
