Improve Pension Contribution Compliance, PenCom Charges NECA

The director general of National Pension Commission (PenCom), Aisha Dahir-Umar, noted that, though members of Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) have been been playing active participatory role in the contributory pension scheme (CPS), they need to develop more robust programmes that can further improve compliance with the Pension Reforms Act (PRA) 2014 by its members. 

Dahir-Umar, who was represented by PenCom’s head of Corporate Communications, Abdulquadri Dahiru, at the 66th Annual General Meeting(AGM) of NECA in Alausa Ikeja, Lagos, reiterated that “It is gratifying to note that as a result of the unwavering support of NECA for the Contributory Pension Scheme(CPS), the pension fund assets contributed by the Organised Private Sector (OPS) under the management of Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), as at 31” May 2023, amounted to N4 053trillion.” 

The commission, however, expressed its appreciation to member companies of NECA for their continued compliance with the provisions of the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2014. Notwithstanding this accomplishment, the commission urged association to develop robust programmes that can further improve compliance with the PRA 2014 by its members. 

Moreover, she said: “As part of its regulatory and supervisory functions, the Commission has continued to issue new and strengthen existing Guidelines, frameworks, and Regulations to make for the smooth implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme and the welfare of active employees and pensioners under the Scheme.”

She also said, PenCom has also issued the Guidelines on Accessing Retirement Savings Account Balance towards Payment of Equity Contribution for Residential Mortgages in order to facilitate contributors’ ownership of residential homes during their working Iife. 

The commission, he promised, would continue to collaborate with NECA and support its activities and programmes geared towards improving the welfare of active employees of the OPS. 

In the same vein, the President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero used the occasion to call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to shelve the planned payment of N8, 000 to vulnerable Nigerians.

Ajaero who was represented by Comrade Chris Onyeka sound a note of warning against the unstable price of fuel, while charging FG to halt the robbing of the poor to enrich the rich policy by plowing the entire amount planned for the execution of the N8, 000 into revival of the country’s refineries to save the country from over dependence on importation of petroleum products.

“The proposal to pay N8,000 to each of the so-called 12 million poorest Nigerian households for a period of six months insults our collective intelligence and makes a mockery of our patience and abiding faith in social dialogue which the government may have alluded to albeit pretentiously,” he pointed out.