Name Pencom defaulting employers

 

Tuesday, Mar 24,2009, 10:21:25 PM   Click:

by Sylvester Enoghase
Mar 24, 2009 (Daily Independent / All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) said that contributions to the scheme have reached N1.1 trillion and ensure that every person who worked in the public or the Federation, Federal Capital Territory or sector private receive retirement benefits as a reason.
PenCom Director-General, Muhammad Ahmad, made this revelation while presenting a speech at a two-day workshop organized by the Committee for the Affairs of editors and correspondents finance, labor, insurance, in Kaduna recently.

He said: "Pension fund assets have accumulated an estimated value of N1.1 trillion in December 2008. Contributions to those employees of the federal government amounts to N247 billion as at February 2009. Many institutions which so far have no pension plans have started to contribute. "

"The reason for this is no exaggeration, given that the scheme set out to secure the future of workers who are currently registered with it," he added

According to the Pencom boss, the law on pension reform in 2004, established a contributory pension scheme for the payment of retirement benefits of public employees of the Federation, Federal Capital Territory and the private sector where it five or more employees in employment in an organization.

Noting that the Committee oversees the investment of assets of pension funds on a daily basis, Ahmad argued that all directors of pension funds (AFP) make daily returns electronically to the Committee how the funds pension is invested.

"This was the occasion of the Monitoring Committee of the investments of pension funds to ensure compliance with rules and regulations stipulated and take prompt corrective action where the need arises," he said .

"The workshop will enhance participants' knowledge of the system thus ensuring more accurate analysis and reporting in the media," he added

The Pencom boss, who said that organizations that have received approval from the Committee to continue their plans are those who have a good record in managing pension assets as required by the PRA 2004. He added that 37 operators of 26 AFP, September APC, PFCs and five licenses have been issued to date.

He said: "The Committee, however, the support of various regulatory authorities, law enforcement and security, also gave its approval to 18 organizations to continue their existing programs to ensure that only fit and proper persons and managed assets held by pension funds. "

Confirming that the National Assembly allowed state governments to enact laws of their pensions, following which the National Council of States adopted the contributory pension scheme of the whole nation in July 2006, the late patron PenCom that three states - Borno, Adamawa and Oyo are yet to start work on the transition from their contributory pension laws.

He said that despite the law on pensions for state and local governments, established by the Commission to provide guidance in developing their own legislation, only 10 governments have since adopted their laws, while 23 others are at different levels of success of bills into laws.

The new life insurance policy of the Group (GLIP) for all workers in the public and private sectors, Ahmad said: "The Commission, in collaboration with the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has published guidelines GLIP on for all workers in the public and private sectors in accordance with Article 9 paragraph three (3) of the Act on pension reform of 2004 ".

"The law requires all employers to provide life insurance coverage for each employee to a minimum of three times the annual salary of the employee," he added.

According to the Pencom boss, the federal government life insurance group took off in January 2008 and several private sector organizations have also complied with this requirement.

"Regulations on pensions will soon be published by the Commission in collaboration with NAICOM," he said.

On the redemption obligations of retirement benefits to federal government employees that are due to retire under the new regime, Ahmad said that "government has met the financing of the purchase obligations of the retirement account with CBN five percent of total monthly wage bill, which is to be set aside to fund the past service benefits due to workers in employment. "

"The federal government has so far released a sum of N96 billion to buy back the rights of its employees for their past service under the former pension plan," he added.

He noted that the Committee has organized a series of seminars on the issue and redemption of the retirement benefits of federal government bonds in June 2007 to December 2009, entered in the 19,637 federal government employees to retire between 2008 and 2009.

The Pencom helmsman, while allaying fears that the government should use the pension funds for infrastructure development, however, the government did not have access to money because he says it is managed by the private sector .

Previously, the Commissioner of Pencom, Inspection, Dr. Musa A. Ibrahim said that the scheme to be effective in achieving its objective of ensuring a decent life for workers after retirement, it must be well understood by employees, employers and the general public.

"Illumination public through interactive sessions of this kind, is part of the strategies used by the Commission to encourage voluntary compliance with the provisions of the law on pension reform, in 2004, to achieve the lofty ideals to ensure that every worker receives a decent retirement income, "he said

Ibrahim noted that the Committee has done a lot of moral persuasion to ensure that employers comply with the Act especially in regard to the submission of the contribution and deducted that it was time for the commission of the termination of default Employers in both print and electronic media

He said: "We have passed the stage of moral suasion. We are now ready to enforce. In fact, the Commission is now at the stage of public disclosure of the names of employers who were not in accordance with available to the Fund Act. "

"We will prevent and possibly take them to the body like the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), and then send them to justice," he added

Also, Eyamba Henshaw, PenCom Commissioner, Technical, urged workers planning for their retirement, to monitor the performance and activities of the AFP, he said: "The clear legal regime and introduced administrative penalties and there is a separation of investment management and custody of assets.

"Transparency is also ensured by the requirements of return issued regular statements of contributions and earnings and the annual audited accounts," she said

According to her, while the skepticism at the beginning of the scheme with most workers to believe that it would be to turn to other programs in Nigeria, the evolution takes place over the past few years have shown that the scheme is come to stay.

She argued that the part of the beauty of the system is that it makes the workers to know how much they have contributed into the scheme so far, allowing them to plan ahead for retirement.

"Besides the fact that the payroll of the employer gives details on deductions, pension plan also allows the administrator to the pension fund concerned to provide details on contributions to individuals," she said

Noting that 80 percent of workers paying into the Nigeria are not due to retire soon, it has expressed the hope that, prior to maturity in the short and medium term investments in the various classes of instruments, securities fixed income such as Treasury bills and money market instruments on the market has recovered.

In response, Comrade Issah Aremu, Vice President, Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC), has recognized that Congress has identified several challenges that have been members of concern, called the Pencom, government, private sector employers and other stakeholders to address the challenges identified in the plan to restore the conviction to people who are increasingly losing faith in the system.

He applauded the guidelines on pension fund investments, noting that the impact of the merger would have been more serious if it is not prudent for the regulation