Nigeria@62: Pension Expert Commends Reform Policies

A pension expert, Mr Ibrahim Haruna, has commended stakeholders in the pension industry for reform policies resulting to sustainable growth and achievements in the sector.
Making the commendation in a phone interview with The Tide’s source in Abuja yesterday, as the country marked its 62nd independence, Haruna said some of the recent achievements were life-changing to some contributors who may take advantage of the opportunity.
“Some recent achievements are that pension contributors in active employment can now pay for equity contribution for mortgage from the balance of their Retirement Savings Accounts (RSA).
“The transfer window opened by the National Pension Commission (PenCom) for RSA holders once a year, this was to make the Pension Fund Administrators (PFA’s) take their responsibilities more seriously.
“Micro Pension Plan (MPP) scheme is for workers in the informal sector and self-employed persons who are not covered by the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and it will help them prepare for their retirement,” Haruna said.
According to him, the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) has achieved a lot.
“PTAD has collaborated with some anti-graft agencies and other relevant stakeholders to help safeguard pensioners under the Defined Benefit scheme (DBS) and their payments from fraudsters.
“Recently, PTAD inaugurated: “I Am Alive” software designed to enable our pensioners to easily confirm their aliveness from the comfort of their homes, using either a smartphone or a computer system,” Haruna said.
He said most importantly, PTAD constantly pay their pensioners, always address to their complaints among others.
Haruna urged the citizens to be patient for any lapses in the pension industry as its working round the clock to change the narrative.
“The field verification was immensely successful and beneficial to the operations of PTAD.
“Resulting in a comprehensive and reliable database, which facilitates the process of budget preparation, accurate pension payments and the determination of outstanding pension liabilities.
“A major gain of the verification was the reduction of the directorate’s payroll by removing ineligible pensioners from the payroll”, he said.
Haruna said that the aim of the verification was to ascertain the eligible pensioners under the DBS, enrol eligible pensioners who were hitherto not on the directorate’s Payroll, while promptly removing the unqualified.