By ANOZIE EGOLE

The National Pension Commission, PENCOM, has announced plans to extend the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS, to the informal sector of the economy, in the next couple of months.

Speaking in an interview ahead of the forthcoming PENCOM conference billed for July this year in Abuja, the Acting Director General of the Commission, Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, stated that one of its strategic focus areas is to bring on board the informal sector, while ensuring that the rules are reviewed to suit the sector.

She said, “One of our strategic focus areas is to bring on board the informal sector of the economy where most of our active employees earn their living. However, the rules would be tailor made to suit their peculiarities,

Continuing, she said, “Looking at the numbers in terms of where PENCOM was before and where it is now, one would believe that they are doing well.

“First of all, the CPS has engendered a regime of a fully funded pension scheme with assets in excess of N4 trillion today. This has been a remarkable growth when compared to estimated pension liabilities of over N2 trillion before the reform.

“Over 98,000workers have retired so far and are receiving their retirement benefits as at when due. In the past, they joined long queues and some even died in the process.”