Despite enacting statutory laws for the implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) in their respective states, 14 states are yet to commence remittances into their workers’ Retirement Savings Accounts (RSA).
The states are Kogi, Imo, Kano, Adamawa, Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Enugu, Gombe, Kano, Nasarawa, Oyo, Sokoto, Taraba, Abia and Niger. Also, Yobe state had yet to commence the process of implementing the law on the CPS.
This was revealed by an update on the implementation of scheme that was obtained from the National Pension Commission (PenCom).
The CPS provides employers and employees opportunities to have a retirement savings package.
The contributory type requires that both employer and employee contribute 7.5 per cent of employee’s monthly emoluments (basic salary, transport and housing allowances).
But the commission in the latest update indicated that Niger State which had suspended the implementation of the pension scheme in April 2015, also amended the law in 2017 in anticipation of its recommencement in the state.
While Imo, Benue, Kwara, Bauchi and Niger states have remittances from only workers in self-funded government agencies; the report showed that states that remit only employees’ portion of the pension contribution include Zamfara, Kebbi and Rivers.
It also disclosed that some states, which included Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Katsina, Kwara, Plateau and Akwa Ibom were still at the stage of passage the bill in terms of the implementation of the CPS.
Furthermore, the commission revealed that remittances by Osun State government were inconsistent, “resulting in huge backlog of contributions.”
The report showed that Ogun State government had huge arrears of unremitting pension contributions and that the state government had largely stopped remitting, except for few state corporations and had also been inconsistent in its payments.
For Delta State, although the state government had embraced the scheme, its local governments were remitting only employee portion of the contribution, just as in Anambra State, the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) remit only employee portion of the CPS. According to the commission, six states of Lagos, Ondo, Kaduna, Jigawa, Edo, Ekiti as well as the federal capital territory had been complying fully with the scheme.
PenCom had on Thursday put the net asset value of the CPS at N7.779 trillion as of February 28, just as it said that N54 billion released by the federal government last year would boost efforts aimed at clearing outstanding pension liabilities, especially the accrued rights of retiring government employees for 2017 and 2018.
The acting Director General of PenCom, Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar, who disclosed this, said the commission had in the past one year recorded a significant increase both in assets and the number of registered contributors.
Dahir-Umar also said in terms of assets growth within the period, the commission recorded an additional N270 billion in net assets from N7.52 trillion in December 2017 to N7.779 trillion by the end of February.
According to her, the number of pension contributors under the scheme also increased by 390,000 from 7.50 million in March 2017 to 7.89 million contributors as of December 2017 and 7.90 million last February.
Credit: Thisday
