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By Segun Otokiti
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has granted an operating licence to the Nigeria Police Force Pensions (NPF Pensions) as the 21st Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) after fulfilling very stringent licensing requirements. NPF Pensions has since commenced operations.
The NPF Pensions which is specially licensed to administer the pension contributions of personnel of the Nigeria Police Force under the Pensions Reform Act 2014, is already taking steps to receive the transfer of the over 300 billion Naira pension contributions of all the personnel of the Nigeria Police from the other 20 Pension Fund Administrators which are currently managing the funds in line with the conditions for the licensing of the Police PFA.
The NPF Pensions was set up and licensed to cater for the personnel of Nigeria Police as a compromise to prevent NPF from exiting the Contributory Pension Scheme. Following the enactment of the Pension Reform (Amendment) Act 2011, which exempted the personnel of the Military and Intelligence Agencies, the Nigeria Police and other agencies brought heavy pressure to bear on the Presidency to also be excluded from the Contributory Pension Scheme. After careful considerations, following several meetings and consultations, the Federal Government decided that the Nigeria Police personnel should remain under the Contributory Pension Scheme, but with special administrative solutions to address the grievances of their personnel within the framework of the Scheme.
Indeed, with the granting of operating licence to the NPF Pensions, the spirit of the compromise whereby the police remains under the Contributory Pension Scheme, being regulated by PenCom but own their PFA to cater for their specific needs and address their genuine complaints against the PFAs which amongst others include poor service delivery has now been realised.
All police pension contributions are currently being transferred to First Pension Custodian which has custody of the funds whereas NPF pensions manages the funds and its required to publish its account annually like any other PFA. So the safety net that covers contributors fund in other PFAs is also covering police pension funds. There is no doubt that, the members of the Nigerian Police are desirous of owning their PFA in order to serve their unique needs and also use any profits there from to improve their welfare.
The viability of the NPF Pensions is assured by the performance of other ventures owned by the Nigeria Police Force which are profitable companies that operate under relevant regulatory authorities. For example, the NPF Micro Finance Bank is one of the best run of its peers. The Police Insurance Company, Health Management Company and Police Cooperative welfare schemes are all doing very well.
Interestingly, it is of note that members of the Nigeria Police force are simply the victims of the police pension scam which seems to reverberate whenever police pensions are mentioned since they were not the managers of the fund, yet their members suffer the non payment of their benefits as at when due. The police pensions are run independent of the Police. Those being tried for mismanaging the funds are not officers of the Nigeria Police.
The NPF Pensions started the process of obtaining a PenCom’s PFA licence two and a half years ago. The company has its operations Headquarters behind Force Headquarters, Abuja, with six regional Offices in Lagos, Portharcourt, Enugu, Abuja, Gusau and Gombe to ensure that pension services are brought nearer to their clients – Police personnel. There are plans to establish representative pension offices in all Police Formations and Commands in order to provide better services to Police personnel.
The company is expected to operate like other 20 PFAs, within the provisions of the Pension Reform Act 2014 and guidelines issued by PenCom. The pension assets are ringed fence as the contributory funds are kept or in the custody of an appointed Pension Fund Custodian in accordance with the Act. It is expected that the newly licensed NPF Pensions with a good understanding of the unique nature of the job of the police will fashion its operations to provide services that will meet their nomadic nature.
The NPF Pensions is run by tested professionals drawn from within the industry and led by consummate professional, Dr Hamza Sule Bokki. Dr Bokki who holds a PhD, is a Fellow of Chartered Pension Institute of Nigeria, member, Nigeria Institute of Management, former Managing Director, Apt Pension Funds Managers as well as former Commissioner of Trade and Industry, Gombe State.
Source: WorldStage
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