No fewer than 4.3 million Nigerians had so far registered with the contributory pension scheme, Mr M K Ahmed, the Director- General, National Pension Commission (PENCOM), has said.

Ahmed gave the figure in an address at the workshop for Business Editors and Finance, Insurance, Labour Correspondents on Tuesday in Calabar.  

Sources quoted Ahmed as saying that the figure was recorded as at the end of July, 2010. 

 He said that about 23, 000 retirees from the public and private sectors under the scheme had collected more than N65 billion as “lump sum”.

According to him, the retirees also collected N800 million as monthly pension from the scheme while assets worth N1.77 trillion has so far been accumulated by the scheme.  

“As one of the hallmarks of the Commission’s consolidated phase, we are encouraging operators to merge on their own terms.

 “Some of them are at various stages of the exercises and we would continue to update tax as we go along in the process,” he said.

He reiterated that the commission was saddle with the responsibility of regulating and supervising the pension industry.  

He said the commission would ensure prompt payment of retirement benefits and promote “a vibrant and sustainable pension industry”.

 He said that the commission was mindful of the challenges posed in the pension reform implementation process hence the commission and other stakeholders had initiated the process of reviewing the “PRA 2004”.  

He said PENCOM had in May 2009 convened a conference on the implementation of the contributory pension scheme.  

The one-day workshop had as its theme: Challenges of the contributory pension scheme: 2010 and beyond.