It is sad that only six out of the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are fully implementing the Federal Government’s Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS). According to the National Pension Commission (PENCOM), Kaduna, Delta, Edo, Ondo, Ekiti, Anambra and the FCT have fully keyed into the laudable scheme as at the third quarter of this year.

Therefore, it is embarrassing that the CPS, which was introduced to ameliorate the problem of workers not getting their pensions upon retirement, is not being implemented in 30 states of the federation. For example, in the North Central zone, only the FCT has established pension bureau and is up-to-date with remittance of pension contributions. Although Benue, Kogi and Nasarawa have enacted CPS laws, they have no pension bureaus in place. Niger State has established a pension bureau but it reportedly suspended implementation of the CPS in April 2015 and stopped remitting pension contributions. Kwara and Plateau have not enacted the CPS law.  In the North East, Borno, Adamawa, Bauchi,  Gombe and Taraba have not commenced the remittance of pension contributions while Yobe is still operating the Defined Benefits Scheme.

In the North West, only Kaduna State has fully implemented the CPS. Jigawa and Kebbi have established Pension Bureaus while Katsina is yet to enact the CPS law or establish the bureau. Kano State, which does not have a pension board, deducts the contributions of workers under an ad hoc scheme managed by trustees.

In the North Central zone, only the FCT has established the pension bureau and fully remitting the contributions of its workers. The same cannot be said of Kogi, Benue and Nasarawa, which, though have enacted the CPS law, are yet to establish the bureaus.

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Though all the six states in the South West have enacted the CPS law and established the bureaus, only Ekiti and Ondo are fully remitting their contributions. Ogun and Osun have huge backlogs, whereas Lagos surprisingly could not supply the needed data on the state of its compliance. In the South South, Edo and Delta are fully compliant as noted earlier. In the South East, only Anambra State has complied.

The compliant level of state governments to the CPS is nothing to write home about. It is not tidy that many state governments are not committed to their workers’ pensions. Their attitude to the CPS does not show that they have regard for their workers.

We urge the governors of the remaining 30 states to quickly enroll their workers in the CPS without further delay. They should not wait for the workers to embark on strike before they comply. Apart from guaranteeing workers’ pensions at the end of their retirement, it makes the payment of pensions easier.

While we observe that the law that establishes the PENCOM does not give it the powers to compel the states to enroll in the scheme, it should be good if the states do so without being coerced. However, we urge workers in the affected states to compel their employers to enroll them in the scheme. The labour unions in these states should rise up to the challenge. The leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) should indeed champion the cause.