Maduka Nweke
The Acting Director General of the Pension Commission, Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar, has expressed satisfaction with the performance of some states in the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
Speaking during a forum for compliance officers and stakeholders of the industry recently in Lagos, Danita-Umar, stated that a total of 24 states of the federation have enacted laws on CPS with 15 of them at various stages of implementation.
She said, “I am delighted to note that to date, 24 states have enacted laws on the CPS, three states have enacted laws on the Contributory Defined Benefits Scheme (CDBS), six others are at various stages of adopting the CPS, two states are at bill stage of a law that is neither CPS nor CDBS, while one has continued with the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS).
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Out of the 24 states that have enacted laws on the CPS, 15 of them have commenced implementation of key provisions of CPS.
Some of the implementations commenced by the states include the establishment of pension bureaux/commissions/boards; conduct of actuarial valuation; commencement of remittance of pension contributions; funding of accrued rights of employees; and putting in place a group life insurance policy for the employees.”
The Commission, she said, believes that all states would eventually adopt the scheme in the nearest future in view of its immense benefits.
Meanwhile, in her keynote address at the forum, the Lagos State Head of Service, Mrs. Folashade Adesoye, said that the state has noted the details of the guidelines released for pension administration in the country and believes that PenCom recognises that pension administration in states is subject to and guided by State Pension Laws as enacted by the state’s House of Assembly and not the PRA 2014.
According to her, “it is expected, therefore, that the essence of a forum like this is the opportunity it provides for practitioners and other stakeholders to discuss the proposed guideline, secure the input of local operators of CPS in addition to benefiting from the contributors and guidelines of relevant subject matter experts before well-articulated guidelines are collated and presented for industry adoption and compliance by all including State Pension Commission.”
Why is it taking nearly TWO(2) YEARS for pensioners under contributory pension scheme to get their entitlements?. Will this situation encourage more people to enrole into the scheme?