Contributory Pension Scheme: Last Hope For Retiree, Alleviation Of Poverty

It is no longer news that pensioners prior to the pension reform act 2004 were faced with multi-dimensional challenges under the then defined benefit scheme (DBS)....CONTINUE READING

Such challenges included the documenta­tions, long waiting for the money to be paid as and when due, traveling for long hours to a location all in the name of going to receive a peanut pension benefits.

In the process most people did not even sur­vive to get paid at the end of the day.

Most pathetic was the fiscal burden the sys­tem inflicted on the government’s financials and when such money is approved and dis­bursed it ended up in private pockets through already structured embezzlements mech­anism. Those at the receiving end were the original owners of the funds, the pensioners.

Suddenly and by divine intervention that appeared like a phoenix, the paradigm shifted by the introduction of the Contributory Pen­sion Scheme (CPS) in 2004.

The sweeping pension reform embedded in the Pension Reform Act as amended has since brought about the last hope for both potential retirees and pensioners.

With the CPS, a civil servant who serves the country meritoriously can now know where and when to get his/her pension paid devoid of stress of long traveling from one lo­cation to another in the name of collecting his/ her pension benefits that was not even com­mensurate to the sufferings the senior citizens went through.

The long disgusting queues of old men and women waiting in the scourging sun to get their pensions have disappeared. Report of people dying in the cause of waiting endlessly for their pension benefits to pay for medical treatments is now a rare story as the CPS has taken care of all that on or before retirement.

Under the old pension system, a colleague was narrating how his father was travelling long distance and waiting for weeks to receive N400 pension another said oh, my father was doing better because he was getting N6.000 more than your father. That was after a long wait and unprecedented and incessant travel­ing to pension offices abi ni tio.

In summary, the hue and cry associated with the old pension system in Nigeria is now a thing of the past as every stakeholder knows what to do on or before the retirement proper.

Well guided are the various financial instru­ments introduced in the reform that one can buy into to continue to earn money at old age without recourse to financial dependency or being an outright liability to the society.

The life annuity or programmed withdraw­al is there to help direct a retiree on where to continue to earn money from the comfort of his/her zone at retirement.

Interestingly, the accumulated pension assets under management (AuM) has grown astronomically to a mouth-watering sum close to N20trillion barely 20 years down the line providing succor for funds for the development of infrastructures such as roads, rail lines for use by citizens while also providing high re­turn on investment for the retirement savings accounts holders at the end of the day.

Given the transparency and accountability nature of the contributory pension scheme the players in the industry are all committed to wellbeing of the retirees and customer sat­isfaction.

Recent report by the National Pension Commission (PenCom), the sectors regulator calling on Nigerians who worked in defunct or­ganisations and big institutions such as banks to come forward and lay claims to their money under CPS is a testament of how reliable the new pension system is in Nigeria today.

The Commission, as earlier reported by Daily Independent has called on workers who worked in defunct Oceanic Bank; Interconti­nental Bank; Mainstream Bank; Julius Berger among others to contact their pension funds administrators (PFAs) to complete the neces­sary documentations for the transfer of their monies lying out there to their RSAs.

Dr Ehimeme Ohioma, Director, Survellance at PenCom on the issue of uncredited contri­bution revealed that the funds have been lying there for sometimes.

“We get reports on monthly bases of what has been happening for years. The PFAs have been relating with employers and nothing seems to be done because most of the benefi­ciaries are no way to be found.

“Some of the companies have folded up especially the banks. Where are we going to get the people? So we did a detail analysis of what should be done. Who are these companies involved? Who are they? And we got to realize that most of these companies have folded up or merged or acquired or even non-existence.

Another is about the construction sector; staffs of Julius Berger are one of the largest numbers of people in that sector. What the company does is that when they get a contract they would engage contract staff to work in that project, it could be for a year or two and as soon as that contract ends, the people dis­appear. They don’t have the names or contacts of whomever, so it is difficult to reachout to these people.

And that is why the commission engaged with the pension operators to see how we can reach out to these people because they have no fixed address. Even the former employees of the banks are nowhere to be found. So we had to take pages of newspapers to advise the pub­lic to check the commission’s websites and that of the operators and PenCom has been adver­tising this on all its social media handles, but that impact is not being felt and I just felt this is an opportunity, We can’t do enough let us continue to sound it out,” Ehimeme cried out.

I think what the pension operators have to do is to scout for the files of these big compa­nies especially the banks because they have a large number of staff who doesn’t know they have a fund somewhere. And if you worked in any of these companies between 2004 and 2006 you have a fund lying down there, it’s your money come and take it. So, we need to contin­ue doing that may be people will response. I know a lot of people who have left the country may not know that they have this kind of funds lying there, some are even dead.

Ensuring that all stakeholders are carried along, PenCom has not rested in its oars in sensitizing key decision makers in pension functionabilities and how it impact on the so­cio-economic being of Nigerians.

Such initiative has witnessed consistent sensitization of members the legislative arm of government who, by virtue of assigned du­ties come in every four years, to also under­stand what pension is all about as part of their oversight functions.

It is no longer news that pensioners prior to the pension reform act 2004 were faced with multi-dimensional challenges under the then defined benefit scheme (DBS).

Such challenges included the documenta­tions, long waiting for the money to be paid as and when due, traveling for long hours to a location all in the name of going to receive a peanut pension benefits.

In the process most people did not even sur­vive to get paid at the end of the day.

Most pathetic was the fiscal burden the sys­tem inflicted on the government’s financials and when such money is approved and dis­bursed it ended up in private pockets through already structured embezzlements mech­anism. Those at the receiving end were the original owners of the funds, the pensioners.

Suddenly and by divine intervention that appeared like a phoenix, the paradigm shifted by the introduction of the Contributory Pen­sion Scheme (CPS) in 2004.

The sweeping pension reform embedded in the Pension Reform Act as amended has since brought about the last hope for both potential retirees and pensioners.

With the CPS, a civil servant who serves the country meritoriously can now know where and when to get his/her pension paid devoid of stress of long traveling from one lo­cation to another in the name of collecting his/ her pension benefits that was not even com­mensurate to the sufferings the senior citizens went through.

The long disgusting queues of old men and women waiting in the scourging sun to get their pensions have disappeared. Report of people dying in the cause of waiting endlessly for their pension benefits to pay for medical treatments is now a rare story as the CPS has taken care of all that on or before retirement.

Under the old pension system, a colleague was narrating how his father was travelling long distance and waiting for weeks to receive N400 pension another said oh, my father was doing better because he was getting N6.000 more than your father. That was after a long wait and unprecedented and incessant travel­ing to pension offices abi ni tio.

In summary, the hue and cry associated with the old pension system in Nigeria is now a thing of the past as every stakeholder knows what to do on or before the retirement proper.

Well guided are the various financial instru­ments introduced in the reform that one can buy into to continue to earn money at old age without recourse to financial dependency or being an outright liability to the society.

The life annuity or programmed withdraw­al is there to help direct a retiree on where to continue to earn money from the comfort of his/her zone at retirement.

Interestingly, the accumulated pension assets under management (AuM) has grown astronomically to a mouth-watering sum close to N20trillion barely 20 years down the line providing succor for funds for the development of infrastructures such as roads, rail lines for use by citizens while also providing high re­turn on investment for the retirement savings accounts holders at the end of the day.

Given the transparency and accountability nature of the contributory pension scheme the players in the industry are all committed to wellbeing of the retirees and customer sat­isfaction.

Recent report by the National Pension Commission (PenCom), the sectors regulator calling on Nigerians who worked in defunct or­ganisations and big institutions such as banks to come forward and lay claims to their money under CPS is a testament of how reliable the new pension system is in Nigeria today.

The Commission, as earlier reported by Daily Independent has called on workers who worked in defunct Oceanic Bank; Interconti­nental Bank; Mainstream Bank; Julius Berger among others to contact their pension funds administrators (PFAs) to complete the neces­sary documentations for the transfer of their monies lying out there to their RSAs.

Dr Ehimeme Ohioma, Director, Survellance at PenCom on the issue of uncredited contri­bution revealed that the funds have been lying there for sometimes.

“We get reports on monthly bases of what has been happening for years. The PFAs have been relating with employers and nothing seems to be done because most of the benefi­ciaries are no way to be found.

“Some of the companies have folded up especially the banks. Where are we going to get the people? So we did a detail analysis of what should be done. Who are these companies involved? Who are they? And we got to realize that most of these companies have folded up or merged or acquired or even non-existence.

Another is about the construction sector; staffs of Julius Berger are one of the largest numbers of people in that sector. What the company does is that when they get a contract they would engage contract staff to work in that project, it could be for a year or two and as soon as that contract ends, the people dis­appear. They don’t have the names or contacts of whomever, so it is difficult to reachout to these people.

And that is why the commission engaged with the pension operators to see how we can reach out to these people because they have no fixed address. Even the former employees of the banks are nowhere to be found. So we had to take pages of newspapers to advise the pub­lic to check the commission’s websites and that of the operators and PenCom has been adver­tising this on all its social media handles, but that impact is not being felt and I just felt this is an opportunity, We can’t do enough let us continue to sound it out,” Ehimeme cried out.

I think what the pension operators have to do is to scout for the files of these big compa­nies especially the banks because they have a large number of staff who doesn’t know they have a fund somewhere. And if you worked in any of these companies between 2004 and 2006 you have a fund lying down there, it’s your money come and take it. So, we need to contin­ue doing that may be people will response. I know a lot of people who have left the country may not know that they have this kind of funds lying there, some are even dead.

Ensuring that all stakeholders are carried along, PenCom has not rested in its oars in sensitizing key decision makers in pension functionabilities and how it impact on the so­cio-economic being of Nigerians.

Such initiative has witnessed consistent sensitization of members the legislative arm of government who, by virtue of assigned du­ties come in every four years, to also under­stand what pension is all about as part of their oversight functions.