Group commends Tinubu’s pension transformation efforts
By Nana Musa
The Contributory Pension and Happy Retirement Advocacy (COPEHRA) has commended President Bola Tinubu’s transformational leadership in the pension industry over the past two years.
The COPEHRA Senior Technical Advisor, Alhaji Sani Mustapha, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday.
Mustapha said that the pension industry, under the watch of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), has increased transparency, accountability, and the integrity of the pension system.
He said that the country’s pension fund assets soared to an all-time high of N19.53 trillion in first quarter.
According to him, the growth was driven by strong performance in equities, mutual funds and federal government securities.
He said that the Tinubu-led government approved the issuance of a N758 billion bond to fully settle outstanding pension liabilities under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
“The bond will also clear pension increases since 2007, amounting to N388 billion that had remained unpaid for nearly two decades.
“This long-overdue entitlement, benefiting over 250,000 retirees, reflects the administration’s commitment to ensuring that pensions remain fair and responsive to economic realities,” he said.
Mustapha said that it was the first time the Federal Government would be contributing N107 billion to the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).
He said that this was to ensure that pensioners, particularly low-income earners, receive a living wage in retirement.
Mustapha said that the sum of N11 billion was allocated to university professors’ pension shortfall, fully implementing the provision allowing eligible university professors to retire on their full salary.
He said that this major step was to strengthen the financial security for all retirees under the CPS.
He also commended the plans to amend the Pension Reform Act (PRA), which was last reviewed in 2014.
“The game changer was the March PenCom directive that effective June 1st, pension fund administrators (PFAs) will now process and approve benefits directly.
“By this directive, benefits approvals have received a boost in terms of timeliness and transparency.
“Pencom is always coming up with new policies that will benefit the Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders and the pensioners,” he said.
He, however, said that making sure that states that are yet to join CPS do so, and employers remit employees’ pension contributions to their RSA had been a huge concern.
“Pensioners no longer protest on the streets. They are given their rights, and I believe more good things are on the way,” he said.
Mustapha said that Tinubu had achieved a lot, and urged the citizens to continue to support the government.
He also commended the Director-General and management of PenCom for pushing the Renewed Hope Agenda in the pension industry. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Kadiri Abdulrahman
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