By Victor Ahiuma-Young

ABUJA—NIGERIA Labour Congress, NLC, warned yesterday in Abuja that the sustainability of Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS, was under threat, claiming the Federal Government’s liability to the scheme was no less than N183billion.

This came as pensioners under the aegis of Association of Contributory Pension Retirees, ACPR, lamented some of the challenges associated with the scheme.

Speaking at the congress of the ACPR, NLC President, Mr. Ayuba Wabba, said the contributory pension scheme was being threatened by non-compliance by major stakeholders, especially employers.

According to him, pensioners on the scheme have gone through a lot of problems to access their funds.

He contended that if the issues and challenges were not addressed, the scheme might soon hit the rocks, adding that “issues of payment of benefit in Nigeria have become a nightmare. This needs to be addressed.

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President of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners, NUP, Dr Abel Afolayan, insisted that the inability of the federal government to release funds as at when due had caused pensioners on CPS to suffer, as no retiree had been paid since October 2015.

According to him, a large number of beneficiaries of deceased pensioners have not been able to access the entitlements of their relations, making life unbearable for them.

He said:  “Non-release of accrued right by the federal government to National Pension Commission to pay the retirees who retired since October 2015 to date has created a lot of problems for pensioners.

‘’Many organizations of government and other employers of labour have been defaulting on the regular remittances of contributions of workers to their pension fund administrators, which is affecting the philosophy of the scheme.

“Non-compliance with section 173 (3) and section 210 (3) of the 1999 constitution ( as amended) and section 15 of 2014 pension reform act (as amended) which stipulates that pension shall be reviewed after every five years whenever workers salaries are reviewed whichever one that is earlier.”

‘’Non-compliance with the provisions of this law by government has made the contributory pensioners loose 15% pension increase of 2007 and 33% increase in 2010 respectively.”

He said the pension scheme had numerous challenges that must be addressed and tackled immediately to avoid the mistakes of the past.

Afolayan said the 2004 Pension Act had abolished the right of the pensioners under this scheme to earn gratuity, thus denying the employees the chance of getting the usual lump gratuity by the employer to his employee at the time of retirement.