From Magnus Eze, Enugu
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) and the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association, (NECA) have enjoined more workers in the country, especially in the South East, to enrol in the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
They noted that such move would help to address their post-retirement needs and make life more peaceful and enjoyable for them.
They spoke in Enugu, yesterday, at a one-day interactive session between the PenCom and NECA on the current developments and challenges in the implementation of the Pension Reform Act of 2014 for the organised private sector.
Director General of NECA, Adewale Oyerinde, expressed worry that only about 10 million people out of the over 73 million people in Nigeria’s workforce had enrolled in the scheme as at June this year.
Represented by the Chairman of NECA, Enugu Geographical Group, Ugochukwu Chime, he named the uncertainty over what happens after contributions have been made and the lack of a proper structure to compel employers to contribute their own quota to the scheme, among the factors contributing to poor enrolment.
He, however, said that the interactive session provided the stakeholders with an opportunity to address the reasons why the remaining 63 million workers were not contributing.
He also said that the private sector remains committed to the success of the contributory pension scheme as long as its concerns are not only noted but also addressed expeditiously.
For her part, Director General of PenCom, Aisha Dahir-Umar, said that the Commission has continued to work towards ensuring the smooth implementation of the CPS through the revision of existing regulations and guidelines and the development of new ones.
Head of the Compliance and Enforcement Department of PenCom, Bala Babangida, who represented the DG assure that the Commission was committed to supporting NECA to champion programmes that will ensure the successful implementation of the pension scheme in Nigeria.
She noted that the commission has also released the guidelines on Accessing Retirement Savings Account (RSA) Balance towards Payment of Equity Contribution for Residential Mortgage by RSA holders to ensure that they own houses during their work life.
“So far, over N10.20 billion for 142,486 contributors under the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) scheme had been transferred to their Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS),” she said.