BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG
FROM January next year,organizations and employers who have not been complying with the Pension Reform Act, PRA, 2004, will find it rough as the National Pension Commission, PenCom, has vowed to begin full application of enabling law to force employers to remit employees contributions to their Pension Fund Administrators, PFAs.

Director-General of the Commission, Mr. M. K. Ahmad, who disclosed this at a one- day workshop organised for Business Editors, Finance, Insurance and  labour correspondents,  said already 52 companies had been taken to court for non-compliance with the PRA.

Represented by Mr. Manzuma Mamman, Commissioner in -charge of Administration, Mr. Ahmad said as at last month, the total pension assets stood at N2.4 trillion and that over N 1.284 billion was used to service retirees’ benefits monthly.

Modest achievements

According to him, “the industry has continued to record modest achievements as 4.92 million Nigerians had registered on the Scheme as at November this year. There are currently about 40,794 retirees from the public and private sectors under the Contributory Pension Scheme who are collecting their monthly pensions either by programmed withdrawal or annuity.

They have collected over N 115.6 Billion as lump sum at the point of retirement and are collecting about N 1.284 billion as monthly pension. Additionally, assets worth N2.4 trillion have been accumulated as at November, 2011.

During the year under review, we continued with the regulatory and supervisory philosophy of the Commission, which is risk-based and consultative, covering all activities of the Commission with particular emphasis on issuance of guidelines and regulations; surveillance of licensed operators; compliance and enforcement; supervision of investment of pension funds; and maintenance of a databank on pension matters.

In the same vein, we intensified efforts in the on-site inspection of employers, collaboration with regulatory and professional bodies, public enlightenment campaigns and application of regimes of sanctions.”

“As part of our consolidation efforts during the year under review, the Commission raised the capital requirements for PFAs from N150million to N1 Billion, of which the deadline is June 2012.  We have aggressively intensified our compliance mechanism by taking legal action against defaulting employers.

The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) has continued to support the Industry by ensuring that service providers to the Federal government comply with the BPP Act with regards to the Pension reform Act 2004.

Compliance by the informal sector received a major boost during the year as the 2 million membership of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) signified their intention to embrace the scheme and the Industry is working towards registering them into the Scheme.

I would like use this opportunity to appeal to other unions in the informal sector to emulate the NURTW by subscribing to the scheme as it is a veritable source of income for all categories of employees after retirement. Mr. M B Umar’s paper would give you details on this and other issues on compliance.

The Commission also continued to collaborate and engage the State Governments in the implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme in the States.  The number of State Governments that have commenced the implementation of the scheme has increased to 18.

Also, the support of the Debt Management Office (DMO) was obtained to ensure that, as a condition, State Governments desirous of obtaining Bonds must key into the Contributory Pension Scheme.