PenCom reviews the PRA 2014

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has reviewed the Pension Reform Act 2014 (PRA 2014) in Abuja during a retreat.

The Head, Corporate Communications of PenCom, Mr Peter Aghahowa, made the disclosure in a statement made available to newsmen on Monday in Abuja.

He said that PenCom organised the retreat on the review of PRA 2014 in Abuja between Jan. 12 and 14.

Aghahowa said that the retreat was aimed at identifying salient issues to be reviewed in the PRA 2014 as a prelude to advancing legislative action on the Bill.

He said that it is expected that the National Assembly would subsequently organise a public hearing in order to provide an avenue for stakeholders to formally make input into the proposed amendments.

Aghahowa said that the PRA 2014 was enacted following a review of the initial PRA of 2004, which introduced legal and institutional frameworks of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and established PenCom to regulate and supervise all pension matters in Nigeria.

He said that during the opening ceremony of the retreat, the Director General of PenCom, Aisha Dahir-Umar, informed the participants that the PRA 2014 codified one of the most important socio-economic reform initiatives of the Federal Government.

Dahir-Umar also said that it had led to a pension industry that has accumulated pension assets in excess of N13 trillion invested in various aspects of the Nigerian economy.

She said that the review is a corollary to some implementation challenges encountered with certain sections of the Act not long after its enactment in July 2014.

This was also an addition to persistent calls from stakeholders for the amendment of some sections of the Act, which resulted in several legislative initiatives through the sponsorship of Bills for amendment of the PRA 2014 by the National Assembly.

The DG said that consequently, the commission as the regulator of the pension industry, decided to coordinate and harmonize the various efforts in order to achieve a comprehensive and constructive exercise for the review of the PRA 2014.