Chinelo Anohu-Amazu
Chuks Udo Okonta
The Director General National Pension Commission (PenCom) Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu has explained why the pension industry may not use data domiciled outside the Commission for the administration of retirement benefits schemes in the country.
According to her, the enabling law for the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), Pension Reform Act, 2014 mandates PenCom to maintain a data base on contributors and retirees in a National Data Bank (NDB) domiciled in-house.
Stakeholders during the PenCom session at the just-concluded Social Media Week in Lagos said they were worried about a possible information overload as a result of the multiple biometric and verification exercises that Nigerian were being forced to do. These include the ones conducted by the National Identity Card Management Commission, Bank verification and Permanent Voters Card, and others.
They also asked PenCom to link up with some of these organisations, access available data from their data bank and aggregate to give it the desired security identification needed for pension purposes.
Responding, Mrs. Anohu-Amazu said the pension law mandated PenCom to register, take the biometric of Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders and warehouse the information in-house.
She said the Commission already had the necessary database domiciled in a National Data Bank (NDB) domiciled in-house and is currently reviewing these data to identify and correct mistakes and misrepresentations with a view to upgrading the system.
The use of cards similar to the Permanent Voters Card (PVC) could be explored in the future to improve on the databank, she added.
The Director General also highlighted some of the reasons why PenCom may not leverage on existing information on the databanks kept by various institutions in the country asking “how do you go about verifying information you are leveraging on.” This is a major concern for PenCom, she stressed.
According to her, the Commission is also worried that the data stored in many of these data banks were accessible to unauthorised persons and institutions without regard for data privacy laws in the country.
She also noted that some workers, particularly those in the informal sector and self-employed persons do not have bank accounts while some others are not even bankable.
The Commission is also worried about how to treat workers with many wives, particularly where death benefits are to be paid, she said.
Earlier in her opening remarks, the Director General said the social network could serve as a platform for the pension regulator and operators to reach the under-served, particularly those who have access to this platform.
She observed that the Carpenter or Plumber working on a construction site has access to telephone and could earn a living when he is active and agile but queried “what happens when he grows old.” She said the Contributory Pension Scheme seeks to take care of wealth creation in an attempt to take care of the citizens when they grow old.
She also stated her expectations that since what the Pension Reform Act, 2014 recommended was the minimum contribution by employers and employers, the parties would exceed these minimum to take care of the future of contributors, wherever and whenever they may be spending their retirement.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp), Mr. Misbahu Yola said member companies of his association have thought of deploying the social media to better serve existing customers and reach new ones scattered across the country.
He said pension operators were currently using Information Technology (IT) to get more people on board even as the younger generation of workers in the country does most of their businesses and transaction paperless. “We are working on that, it is going to be a channel that is unavoidable and we will adopt it,” he assured.
The Executive Director of Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA), a financial sector development organisation that promotes financial inclusion in Nigeria, Mrs. Modupe Ladipo said “Nigerian youths believe that pension is for their parents and grand-parents.”
According to her, Nigerian youths sampled listed flexibility in identification, voluntary and flexible timing of contributions, removal of age restrictions, group contributions and possible lending, access to funds for short periods, access to accumulated contribution when the need arises and above inflation return on investment in addition to quick and easy access to pension benefits of deceased contributors by their relatives as some of the issues they would like their pension fund to positively address.
She also disclosed that EFInA’s research confirmed that on what they would like to do when they grow old and how, 72 per cent of respondents said they are willing to save to take care of their old age while 28 per cent or respondents said no because it is either they had no regular income, the money they had was not enough to take care of their needs, they had no job or they don’t believe in the in the Contributory Pension Scheme.
According to her, youths prefer a totally flexible pension scheme where they can contribute and have access to the money at will even as the scheme targets their income stream.
Mrs. Ladipo also reported that 16 per cent of respondents to the EFInA survey were happy with the services rendered by their Pension Fund Administrators under the Contributory Pension Scheme and would like to make use of the mobile money platforms to remit their contributions and access their benefits in future.
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