PFAs commences scheme to enhance pension, says PenCom

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) said Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) had commenced the enhancement of monthly pensions under its Programme Withdrawal (PW) from Dec 2017.

The Director General of PenCom, Mrs Aisha Dahir-Umar, said this on Thursday at a workshop organised for journalists in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

Dahir-Umar said the enhancement of monthly pensions of the PW was initiated by PenCom under the Pension Enhancement Programme (PEP).

Dahir-Umar, represented by, Mr Mohammed Sani, the Legal adviser and Company Secretary, said the commission initiated the PEP to enhance monthly pension of retirees on PW of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

According to her, it was discovered that the returns being generated by PFAs on the balances of Retirement Savings Accounts (RSA) of majority of the retirees could be used to enhance their monthly pensions.

This, she said, made the commission to obtain the approval of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to initiate and implement the PEP.

The PenCom boss said the implementation of PEP was one of the significant milestones attained by the commission since the commencement of the CPS.

“It confirms that the CPS has workable internal mechanisms to respond to legimate demands of retirees as they seek a reasonable retirement income,” she said.

Dahir-Umar said the commission intended to sustain periodic review exercise of PEP in line with relevant provisions of the law.

On efforts to settle outstanding Pension liabilities of the Federal Government, she said PenCom, working with the Federal Government, would determine the total pension liabilities in the old and new schemes.

According to her, PenCom has advised the Federal Government on the amount required to defray the pension obligations in the budget.

She said that the outstanding accrued rights of Federal Government employees who retired in 2017 and those due to retire in 2018 had been submitted for appropriation in 2018 budget.

She also said government’s positive disposition towards settling the liabilities was evidenced in the previous release of N54 billion in April 2017, adding that the remaining liabilities would soon be cleared.

The PenCom director-general also said the commission had issued a circular on withdrawals from voluntary contributions in November 2017.

She said the circular was necessitated by the high rate of withdrawals from the voluntary contributions which negated its main purpose of augmenting pensions at retirement.

Dahir-Umar said the main trust of the circular was to ensure that 50 per cent of the voluntary contributions could be withdrawn once in every two years.

Our correspondent reports that the conference which had in attendance journalists reporting pension, finance and insurance had its theme “Contributory Pension Scheme: Archievement and Challenges,”

Some of the papers presented the conference included Benefits of Payment Arrangement under the CPS, Understanding the Multi-Fund Structure of Pension Funds and Service Delivery under the CPS.