Director-General, National Pension Commission, PenCom, Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, has announced that Nigeria’s Contributory Pension Fund, CPF, has leaped to about N5.9 trillion as at October 31st 2016
The Pencom Boss, who spoke on Wednesday, November 2, in Calabar, Cross Rivers State at the opening of a two day Journalists Conference, disclosed that the fund had been invested in structured and safe financial instruments and that 7.2 million had registered as pension contributors with 170,000 retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS); amongst others.
Anohu-Amazu said these modest milestones notwithstanding, the implementation of the Pension Reform Act 2004 (PRA) was not bereft of challenges.
She said:“We cannot overemphasise that the relative success of the implementation of the PRA 2004 could largely be attributed to the fundamental structures upon which the CPS was built. Indeed, the cardinal principle of separation of custody from management and supervision of pension funds has resulted in a pension scheme with sound internal mechanism for transparency and accountability.”
“Whereas the Pension Fund Administrators, PFAs, manage the pension funds, they do not have access to same, since custody is vested in the Pension Fund Custodians (PFCs), while the Commission ensures both parties adhere strictly to regulations governing the pension funds,” she said.
“Indeed, some issues were noted in the course of implementation since the PRA 2004 and this underscored the imperative for a comprehensive review of the PRA in order to consolidate on the Pension Reform.”
She said the re-enactment of the PRA in July 2014 provided a sound basis to guide the second decade of the Nigerian Pension Reform. The PRA 2014 sought to ensure that more tangible benefits accrue to retirees towards a more blissful retirement.
