PenCom: FG Yet To Comply With Pension Contribution

The National Pension Commission has revealed that the Federal Government is yet to comply with some statutory rate and increase of the pension contribution.

PenCom said the Federal government is yet to agree with the new minimum statutory rate of pension contribution of 18 percent since 2014.

Also, it was yet to pay approved 15 percent and 33 percent pension increases to pensioners under the Contributory pension Scheme (CPS) and the shortfall for payment of full retirement benefits of retired Heads of Service and Permanent Secretaries respectively.

This was revealed by the Director General of the Commission, Aisha Dahir-Umar, on the occasion of the oversight visit of the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Services to Commission.

The PenCom boss decried the non-payment of Federal Government’s Pension Protection Levy saying, “these have created a sad and negative impression on the full realization of the objectives of the CPS in Nigeria,”.

She added that a large number of Federal Government employees who retired from March 2020 to March 2021 under the CPS that are yet to receive their pensions due to non-payment of their Accrued Pension Rights.

“This challenge, which started in 2014, was essentially triggered by the appropriation of insufficient amounts for payment of Accrued Pension Rights of FGN retirees and further aggravated by late or non-release of full appropriated amounts,” she said.

On the gains of the CPS, she said Retirement Savings Account (RSA) registration has reached 9.27 million as at January 2021 and the value of accumulated pension assets has also reached N12.3 trillion as at January 2021.