A financial investor, Mr Tunji Busari, on Wednesday, advised civil servants to look beyond the current pension scheme and invest in their future.
Busari, a lawyer, said that a section of the country’s Civil Service Law that prohibited civil servants from engaging in some businesses was not against investment.
He gave the advice on the sidelines of a news conference organised by Kosofe Local Government and Enterprenovate Nigeria in partnerships with Leadway Assurance and MOYDAK Construction to sensitise civil servants on investment.
The programme, tagged “Life After Retirement and Life as a Self-Employed 2017’’, is expected to hold between June 22 and June 23.
It will hold at the Kosofe Local Government Headquarters, Ogudu in Lagos.
The programme aims to enlighten civil servants on ways, how and where to invest and also give the civil servants opportunity to meet investors who will give first hand help and advice.
On how investment could help, Busari advised the workers to look beyond the contributive pension to investing in profitable businesses that could bring extra income.
“One thing the civil servant must recognise is that they should think outside the box and go beyond savings to investment which does not in any way contravene to the civil service laws.
“The civil service personnel need to know that savings as being propagated for future use is not enough, what should be at the back of their mind should be investment.
“Experience has proved that savings nowadays gets depreciated as inflation rises but investments will yield interest and also more rewarding.
“There are so many investments now that the civil servants can be involved in which can yield results without them monitoring it. They just put money and expect yields,’’ he said.
Busari said that the wise saying that “health is wealth’’ should be reflected in the way civil servants planned their spending and not spending their hard earned money on health issues.
“The workforce must realise that they need investment to sustain their health and not their savings.
“They need to open their eyes to many investments that cannot compromise their oath of civil service.
“Viable investments take care of the future because it does not collapse. We should invest our money to bring returns which I think is more enduring.
“There are many of the investments such as money market, real estate, farming and others. Seeing that the shares are not that profitable now, cash investment is now preferable.
“We want to lecture the workforce on how to invest their monies and be rest assured that they will have it good,’’ he said. (NAN)