By Nnamdi Duru
Eight and half years after the introduction of contributory pension in Nigeria, identified shortfalls in the Pension Reform Act, 2004 (PRA) pushed the federal government move to repeal it and re-enact the PRA Bill, 2013. Some of the benefits of the new bill are highlighted in this review.
The contributory pension scheme was introduced by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration in Nigeria eight and half years ago, marking a turning point from the defined benefit non-contributory pension scheme to the new scheme, which applies to the federal government workers and their counterpart in the private sector. However, there were rooms for the extension of the scheme to cover states and local government employees going forward.
Successes of Contributory Pension Some of the major achievements of contributory pension scheme in the country include the establishment of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), a body that was statutorily empowered to regulate the pension industry as well as the licensing and recapitalisation of including 18 Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), four Closed Pension Fund Administrators (CPFAs) and seven Pension Fund Custodians (PFCs) at the last count.
Pension assets under the management of PFAs has grown to N3.38 billion, about 1 per cent of Nigeria's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as at June, 2013, while the number of Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders has risen to 5.30 million as at end of May 2013.
Retirees drawing monthly pension under contributory pension rose to 54,558 retirees from both public and private sectors as at September 2012 and they collectively received over N151.52 billion of their accumulated pension savings as lump sum and N1.77 billion monthly as pension as at then.
Various types of investment options that suit the needs of workers depending on how long they have to work before retiring were also created. The regulator also upheld corporate governance and ensured that the operators toed the same line.
In spite of the above success and other un-mentioned ones, the Pension Reform Act (PRA), 2004 fell short of expectations in many regards. In recognition of the many shortcomings of the law, the federal government introduced a Bill to Repeal the PRA, 2004 and Re-enact Pension Reform Act, 2013. Highlighted below are some of the benefits that would accrue in addition to the gains of the eight years of contributory pension.
Defined Benefits Schemes The new bill seeks to ensure greater efficiency and accountability in the administration of defined benefits schemes such that payment of pensions would be made by the Accountant General of the Federation directly to pensioners' bank accounts in line with the policies of the federal government.
It took cognisance of the multiple challenges of administering relevant provisions in the PRA, 2004 regarding the establishment of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Department (PTAD) and payment of pension to pensioners under defined benefits schemes as a result of ambiguities in the law. It also sought to deal with the type of widespread fraud in the pension departments under the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation (OHOSF) as exposed by the National Assembly recently.
As such, the Pension Reform Act, 2013 seeks to empower PenCom as an enhanced regulatory authority. It also seeks to raise the commission's efficiency in the area of providing greater oversight over PTAD and empowering it to reposition the department. In addition, it will make it possible for the federal government and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Pension Transitional Arrangement Departments to issue payment instructions to the office of the Accountant General of the Federation after clearance by PenCom, even as stakeholders want PenCom to be involved in operational issues at the department.
Investment in Infrastructure In the last two years, interested stakeholders have agitated for the investment of accumulated retirement savings in the development of infrastructure across the country. They reasoned that since bank loans cannot be effectively used for this purpose, pension assets, being long term funds, should be invested in the development of power, housing, roads and other infrastructures. Others believe that the fund should be used to grow and stabilise the capital market in the country.
Meanwhile, pension fund managers have warned that since it is meant to ensure good life in retirement for contributors, the money cannot be used for these purposes without adequate guarantees by the federal government, which the latter is not ready to provide yet. Sections 85 to 91 of the new bill recognises the need to use pension fund to grow infrastructure and as such, provides for the sphere of permissible investment instruments for pension assets to be expanded to accommodate initiatives for national development without jeopardising the safety of the funds.
Minimum Rate of Returns Many retirees under the new scheme are complaining that what they get as monthly pension is a far cry from what their colleagues who retired under defined benefits scheme get.
To resolve this crisis and ensure that pension benefit of retirees is significant, the new law seeks to increase the monthly contribution to be credited into the RSA of individual workers to 20 per cent of his total emolument.
Employers are to contribute 12 per cent while workers contribute 8 per cent of their monthly emolument even as the organised labour wants the level of contribution by workers to remain at 7.5 per cent while their employers contribute 12.5 per cent into the pool.
However, the umbrella body of employers in the country, the Nigerian Employers' Consultative Association (NECA) is kicking against this proposal, saying it would over burden employers and force them to retrench workers or seek other ways around the provision. Employers prefer the regime of collective bargaining instead.
Wherever the pendulum swings, the new law has the tendency to increase the amount of contributions to be transferred in workers RSA monthly and boost their monthly pension when they eventually retire.
PenCom Management Qualification The new bill proposes a reduction in the working experience of the Director General of PenCom from 20 years to 15 years while that of the Chairman remains at20 years.
However, the public hearing on the bill brought to the fore the futility of attaching age to the position of Director General and Commissioners of PenCom. In his wisdom, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, asked "who can justify the lowering of the years of experience of the director general of PenCom from 20 years to 15 years?" Responding, the National President of the Federal Universities Pensioners (FUPA), Dr. Ayuba Kura, said: "It is not how long that makes experience but the achievements. It is not the older you are or the longer you work that matters. In fact, the older you stay, you lose value. I was a middle level Lecturer but I lectured more vigorously than most of the Professors then."
While Kura recommended 10 years post qualification experience for appointee as director general and commissioners respectively, Nigerian students say this is a slight on the youth and an attempt to block their future when they finally come of age. The pension regulator however, made a strong case for the abolition of age and years of experience for the positions. It wants the curriculum vitae attached to each nomination to guide the National Assembly in approving or rejecting the President's nominations in this regard.
"The commission submits that the National Assembly should de-emphasise the issue of qualifying years of experience and adopt the model of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Act; where no requirement of specific years of post qualification experience is stipulated. This is the position that is consistent with global best practice, which emphasises competence rather than years of post qualification experience, which do not necessarily translate into capacity and capability," the commission argued.
Miscellaneous Issues When passed into law, the bill will ensure that incomes from investment of pension fund would be exempted from taxes in addition to the exemptions that apply at the points of accumulation and payment of retirement benefits. It also seeks to guarantee the existence of CPFAs for existing employees while every new employee of the sponsor of the scheme shall join the contributory pension scheme.
The bill seeks to remove the exclusive jurisdiction of the National Industrial Court (NIC) from issuing Letters of Administration but stakeholders argue that this would make it possible for relatives of deceased workers to produce different letters of administration issued by different authorities to lay claims to the deceased pension benefits.
Also, Nigerian students, who see themselves as the major beneficiary in all of this, want PenCom to be empowered to prosecute employers who fail to deduct and or remit pension deductions accordingly. They also want pension to be harmonised and upscaled in line with provisions of Section 173 of the 1999 constitution, to enable their retired parents pay their school fees accordingly.
Pension Reformers The Presidency should be commended for its determination to ensure that pension fraud becomes a thing of the past. In spite of moves by entrenched interests, seeking to exclude some parastatals, departments and agencies from contributory pension for the suspected purpose of continuation of pension fraud in all ramifications, the President has stood his ground on pension reform.
Also, the National Assembly, particularly the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service Maters and the House Committee on Pension, should be commended and encouraged to carry on with pension reform to a logical conclusion.
In spite of several attempts to break their will and even threats to their lives, they have continued to expose all forms of pension fraud in the public sector and are now making moves to block all loopholes that used to make it possible. Also various trade unions and pensioners' groups as well as students and all other organisations and individuals who are determined to reform the system for good should equally be commended.
Letting Nigerians into the thinking of Federal Legislators, the Senate President, Mr. David Mark, said pension is tied to the future of individual workers, retirees and their future generations and by extension the future of the nation in general. He encouraged Nigerians to secure the future of these.
"Pension money is blood money. Anybody who takes pension money; whether you connive with those who take it or know about it without speaking out, you are guilty," Mark ruled.
Source: Thisday
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