Only four states and the federal capital territory have started paying pensions to employees under the contributory pension scheme, according to the National Pension Commission (PenCom) (CPS).
Lagos, Osun, Kaduna, Delta, and the federal capital territory are the states involved (FCT).
In its most recent report, titled “Status of implementation of the CPS by states and the FCT for the first quarter of 2022,” the agency revealed.
PenCom also announced that the 2022 online verification and enrollment exercise for retirees/potential retirees of Treasury-Funded Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) will begin on Monday, June 20th, 2022.
Employees of federal government Treasury-funded MDAs who missed the enrollment exercise in previous years will be covered by the online exercise.
PenCom advised all retirees and prospective retirees to visit their Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) and complete the data recapture exercise prior to enrollment.
According to a statement issued by PenCom yesterday, this entails retirees providing personal information, including their National Identity Number (NIN), even though retirees and prospective retirees who had previously completed the data recapture exercise are not required to do so.
“Retirees/prospective retirees are required to visit PenCom’s website (www.pencom.com.ng) and upload their employment details as well as scanned copies of required documents before proceeding to their respective PFAs for physical verification and enrollment,” the regulator said. The PenCom website contains a step-by-step procedure for online enrollment.
“Similarly, retirees/potential retirees who are unable to complete the online registration for any reason should contact their respective MDA’s Pension Desk Officer or visit their PFAs for assistance,” it stated, “while the verification and enrollment by all parties concerned must be completed on or before August 31, 2022.”
Meanwhile, according to PenCom, 25 states have passed legislation to join the CPS. Only 15 of these states have established pension bureaux/boards in accordance with the CPS (Lagos, FCT, Osun, Kaduna, Delta, Ekiti, Ondo, Edo, Benue, Kebbi, Niger, Rivers, Ogun, Bayelsa, and Kogi).
The CPS is a system in which both the employer and the employee contribute to the payment of the employee’s pension when he or she retires.
It is entirely funded by monthly pension contributions made to an employee’s retirement savings account (RSA), which is administered by the pension fund administrator (PFA).
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Despite the fact that the CPS laws have been passed, the states of Anambra, Abia, Taraba, Imo, Sokoto, Adamawa, Ebonyi, Nasarawa, Enugu, and Oyo have yet to establish a pension bureau to oversee the scheme’s implementation.
Eight states, namely Kwara, Plateau, Cross Rivers, Borno, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Katsina, and Yobe, were still in the bill formation stage, according to the report. It means that a law on the CPS has yet to be enacted to guide the scheme’s implementation.
Jigawa, Kano, Gombe, and Zamfara states, on the other hand, have chosen to operate their own pension schemes.
During the quarter under review, PenCom held sensitization workshops, capacity-building programmes, and stakeholder engagement meetings, according to the company.
It stated that it met with representatives of the Ekiti State Pension Commission (ESPC) to discuss the challenges that the state has faced in implementing the CPS.
The commission also stated that it gave presentations at the FCT Area Councils Staff Pension Board (ACSPB) pension management retreat in Akwanga, Nasarawa state, on the CPS implementation challenges, with an emphasis on uncredited contributions.
“The commission engaged the Rivers state government, expressing concern about the state’s inability to fully implement the CPS in the state, in light of the impending commencement of state employees’ retirement under the CPS as of 1 June 2022,” it added.
“The commission also engaged the government of Ogun state on the state’s persistent non-remittance of pension contributions into the RSAs of state employees, in light of the fact that state employees will begin retiring under the CPS on July 1, 2025.”
