By ROSEMARY ONUOHA
PENSION  Fund Operators Association of Nigeria, PENOP, has said the massive corruption being unearthed in the administration of pensions in the public sector, under the defunct Deferred Pension system, in the ongoing  probe by Senate Committee cannot happened and not connected to the new Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS.

Chairman of PENOP, Dave Uduanu who spoke at an interactive session with the media in Lagos, assured contributors in the new CPS that the “scheme was robust, safe and poised to help retirees live well after their active life in employment.”

“To a large extent the new pension scheme has placed in the hands of the contributor the responsibility for the contribution that is available in the Retirement Savings Account, RSA, upon retirement. Thus, participants will have to take their destiny in their hands and there lies one of the major differences between the new system and the previous system.”

The Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria, PENOP is an independent, non-governmental, non-political and non-profit making body whose members include four Pension Fund Custodians, PFCs,  24 Pension Fund Administrators, PFAs and seven Closed Pension Fund Administrators, CPFAs, with the objective of promoting the operations and growth of the industry and ensuring that international best practices relating to the industry are observed by the operators registered in Nigeria.

The new pension scheme called the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) is a very simple antidote to the complexities of the past scheme and the new scheme will ease the problem of retired workers going through hell to get their retirement benefits.”

Another major difference according to him, “is that while pensioners in the old system travel long distances to be verified, the local office of the PFA manages that level of interface without any stress, thereby removing the need for continuous verification of pensioners.

In the new scheme, the contribution is 7.5 per cent of the consolidated (total) monthly earning, and not just of the basic salary. Thus, 7.5 per cent is deducted from every participant worker, and the employer adds another 7.5 per cent monthly. The savings are secure and no worker would be shortchanged at the end of the day.”

Speaking, Head, Research and Corporate Strategy Department, National Pension Commission PENCOM, Umaru Farouk Aminu, said there “are checks and balances in the system, and the various regulations passed by PENCOM over the years have been geared towards more openness, transparency and empowering contributors and beneficiaries of the scheme to be the major players in the pension industry, unlike in the previous era.”

Corroborating, Mrs. Ronke Adedeji, Managing Director, Leadway Pensure and Executive Committee Member, PENOP, pointed out that the supervisory system in the industry under the old scheme was fragmented and unregulated.

According to her, “A lot of agencies like Security and Exchange Commission, SEC, National Insurance Commission, NAICOM and others were supervising the industry in the old scheme but in the new scheme, the industry is strictly regulated by PenCom”.