By Dirisu Yakubu

The National Pension Commission, PENCOM, yesterday said that 70 percent of the N12.7trn in the Retirement Savings Account, RSA, of the contributory pension scheme platform is owned by workers in the private sector.

Dr. Farouk Aminu, a commissioner at PENCOM, stated this in Abuja at a Town Hall meeting on “Effective Pension Administration in the Public Service,” organized by the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.

According to him, the said N12.7 trn represents the contribution of 9.3 million Nigerians working in the private sector as well as employees of the federal and state governments.

Aminu, who represented the Director General of PENCOM, Aisha Dahir-Umar, put the number of private sector workers, who owned bulk of the contribution at 5.8m.

He said: “When we talk of the N12.7trn I mentioned today, this money is a contribution that belongs to 9.3 million people, including people who are working for the federal government, the states and largely private sector.

“About 5.8m are actually people from the private sector. The private sector owns over 70 per cent of this money because they contribute more. When we remove the state, we can see that the amount that belong to the federal government employees and contributors is generally less than 10 to 20 per cent.”

He expressed delight that the commission has cleared all pension arrears up till December 2020 from the N100 billion approved last month by President Muhammadu Buhari.

On her part, the Head of Service of the Federation, Dr. Folasade Yemi- Esan, noted that there had been displeasure in the implementation of the contributory pension scheme and management of defined benefits scheme by serving and retired officers, assuring that the federal government will do everything possible to enhance the welfare of retired and serving officers of the service.