… Contributors’ funds hit N1.73trn

By Babajide Komolafe & Victor Ahiuma-Young
AFTER what it considers as the failure of moral persuasion, “naming and shaming” of employers who have failed to comply with the provisions of the Pension Reform Act 2004, the National Pension Commission, PENCOM, yesterday, in Lagos, said it would in the next one month drag defaulting employers to court

This came even as the commission said the total contribution by public and private sectors’ workers into the pension fund pool since inception in 2004, had hit N1.73 trillion.

PENCOM Director-General, Mr. Mohammed Ahmed, told newsmen at a one-day conference for Directors of Licensed Pension Operators that the commission was disappointed that moral persuasion, naming and shaming where defaulting employers were published in media, could not make the employers to comply with the Act, but had remained recalcitrant.

According to him: “We are still having challenges with them (employers). In the next one month or so, we are going to court basically to take on those employers that have defaulted.

“As you are aware, we have issued warning letters, we have even imposed sanctions. We have even advertised their names, we fought them by advertising their through naming and shaming so that people will realise the implication and then comply, unfortunately they have not done that. We have issued our final warning for them to show us why legal action should not be taken against them. But definitely in the next one month we are going to take all those institutions that have defaulted to court.

“In terms of reform efforts, perhaps one can say we now have a pension industry. We have now accumulated about N1.73 trillion pension assets. The irony of it is that a substantial part of it was contributed by the private sector. That shows that the private sector has confidence in this scheme and we expect that the public sector, particularly the states and local governments would join us.

In terms of registration, it has been quite challenging, we basically have about four million Nigerians that have registered. The challenge there is that we do not have records of employers. We have over 157,000 employers from the private sector that have signed up to this scheme. We expect to have more. In terms of rules and regulations we are not doing badly. All our rules are on our website and we will continue to build on our modest achievement.”

Earlier in his keynote address, Chairman of the commission, Chief  Oluwole  Alani  Adeosun, the conference was conceived and convened by the Commission as mandated by the PRA 2004 to promote capacity building and institutional strengthening at the highest level of operators.

According to the Chairman, “while the Commission has been intervening in building the capacity of the operators in key performance areas, there is need to build the capacity of the policy makers, who are the respective Boards of Directors in the industry to ensure good corporate governance in the pension industry.

The Conference Series is also intended to highlight the need to set standards for good practice, including statutory requirements for directors of licensed pension operators, which should inform the way in which you collectively and individually conduct Board business and discharge your responsibilities.

We hope it would also provide a framework for operators’ Boards to develop, maintain and review their corporate governance policies and practices and ultimately improve their performance and the success of their companies and the Nigerian economy as a whole.

“Besides being part of our mandate, it is normal practice in some sectors, like the banking industry, for directors to be trained, updated and their capacities enhanced from time to time.  In Nigeria, bank directors have an association and forum where they meet to discuss topical issues relating to the banking industry, which I would urge you to emulate for the young and vibrant pension industry.