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Chuks Udo Okonta
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has given reasons for the ongoing review of Pension Reform Act 2014.
Speaking during the opening ceremony of
a retreat on the review of the Act in Abuja, the Director-General of PenCom, Aisha Dahir-Umar, informed the participants that the PRA 2014 codified one of the most important socioeconomic reform initiatives of the Federal Government, leading to a pension industry that has accumulated pension assets in excess of N13 trillion invested in various aspects of the Nigerian economy.
She noted that the review is a corollary to some implementation challenges encountered with certain sections of the Act not long after its enactment in July 2014.
This is in addition to persistent calls from stakeholders for the amendment of some sections of the Act, which resulted in several legislative initiatives through the sponsorship of Bills for amendment of the PRA 2014 by the National Assembly, she said.
She submitted that consequently, the Commission, as the regulator of the pension industry, decided to coordinate and harmonize the various efforts in order to achieve a more comprehensive and constructive exercise for the review of the PRA 2014.
She noted that the retreat was aimed to identify salient issues to be reviewed in the PRA 2014 as a prelude to advancing legislative action on the Bill, adding that it is expected that the National Assembly would subsequently organise a public hearing in order to provide an avenue for stakeholders to formally make input into the proposed amendments.
The PRA 2014 was enacted following a review of the initial Pension Reform Act of 2004, which introduced legal and institutional frameworks of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and established PenCom to regulate and supervise all pension matters in Nigeria.
