Ime Akpan
The National Pension Commission (PENCOM) has accused some states of not remitting over N3.4 billion pension funds deducted from the workers’ pay under the contributory pension scheme.
The acting director general of the commission, Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar, who disclosed this in a keynote address at the Second Quarter Consultative Forum held in Lagos yesterday said Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) returns confirmed the non-remittance the sum.
Dahir-Umar who was represented by the deputy general manager, states operations department, Dr. Dan Ndackson, however did not name the affected states.
She called on the participants to treat non-credited remittance as a major item saying it robs employees of the investment income that accrues to them.
She said over 38 per cent of the non-credited remittances had been outstanding for over one year.
She said returns submitted to the Commission by the PFAs showed that over N8.09 billion was remitted to them as pension contributions of state employees in the first quarter of this year.
She lauded some states that collaborated with the commission in implementing the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) but expressed concerns over Rivers and Zamfara states for introducing pension laws that are not in tandem with the philosophy of the CPS despite the Commission’s advice.
She also said notable among the many achievements within the second quarter are the meetings held with the then governors-elect (now governors) of Lagos and Bauchi states.
“We are also pleased to note the giant stride taken by the Benue State government recently by enacting the Benue State Pension Reform Law 2019, in May 2019.
“Besides joining the league of States that have commenced the process of implementing the CPS, the Benue State Law incorporated all the observations made by the Commission in the draft Bill before passage into law. We are therefore confident that with this sound and sustainable legal framework in place, Benue State’s implementation would not face major challenges.
“We have also noted the re-enactment of the Rivers State Pension Reform Law 2019, which repealed the Rivers State Pension Reform Law 2012 as well as the Zamfara State Contributory Pension Scheme Board Law 2019, which established a Contributory Defined Benefits Scheme.
“While states are at liberty to come up with their own pension laws, the Commission is, however, concerned that despite the collaboration with the Commission, several provisions of the pension laws of these two States’ laws that were not in tandem with the philosophy of the CPS were retained despite the Commission’s advice,” said Dahir-Umar
She explained that the key objective of the CPS is to ensure that all workers receive their retirement benefits as and when due.
As part of efforts to engender best practices and recognise excellence among states in their implementation of the CPS, she said the commission had instituted an Annual Recognition/Award Event to honour states and operators that are foremost in implementing the CPS.
