Presidency spots errors in 2014 Pension Act

Jonathan


 

Error in Section 2 (2)

Chuks Udo Okonta and agency report

The 2014 Pension Act, which President Goodluck Jonathan assented to early this month, has been sent back to the Office of Attorney-General of Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice following the discovery of some errors in it.

One of the errors is contained in  section 2 (2) of the Act, which has been obtained by Inspenonline.

It reads: "In the case of the Private Sector, the Scheme shall apply to employees who are in the employment of an organisation in which there are 15 or more employees."

A source told New Telegraph, that the AGF office was studying the law with the aim of correcting the defects which could hobble the implementation of the Pension Act, which revised the old one.

He said the AGF and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke (SAN), was going through the law with a view to correcting figures and spelling mistakes that were detected after the president had gave his assent to it on July 1.

For instance he said "whereas the new 2014 Act makes Contributory Pension Scheme compulsory for any private sector employer that employs maximum of three workers to enrol his workers for Retirement Savings Accounts(RSA), we discovered a mistake in the maximum figure for private workers which was typed as15 instead of three."

New Telegraph also learnt that the implementation of the new pension scheme may take time because the AGF office would have to gazette the Act and send same to the National Pension Commission (PenCom) to issue implementation and enforcement guidelines.

When contacted by New Telegraph for more details on the errors in the law, Chief Press Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Mr. Ambrose Momoh, in a telephone interview, said he was not aware that the Act had been sent back to the ministry. PenCom Head, Corporate Communications, Emeka Onuorah, was not available to comment on the matter.

The president had given assent to the law, which was enacted to correct some lapses that characterised the 2004 Pension Act. Some provisions contained in the 2014 Pension Act lauded by both Pension Funds Administrators(PFAs) and Pension Custodians were that operators who mismanage pension funds on conviction are liable to not less than 10 years imprisonment or fine of an amount equal to three times the amount so misappropriated or both imprisonment and fine.

The new law has increased RSA contribution both by employer and employees from 15 per cent to 18 per cent, representing 8 per cent contribution by an employee and 10 per cent by his employer.

Besides, the new law has reduced the number of employees an employer must have on his payroll to qualify for participation in the contributory pension scheme from five to three.