Only 12 States Are Funding Workers’ Pension Accounts – PenCom

• Only 12 States Are Funding Workers’ Pension Accounts – PenCom

Only 12 states among those that have enacted the Contributory Pension Scheme laws have been funding the pension accounts of their workers as of the end of June 2018.

This was disclosed in the report on ‘Implementation update by the State Governments’ by the National Pension Commission which was obtained by our correspondent on Tuesday.

In the report, PenCom stated, “Twelve out of the 36 states had commenced remittance of contributions into the RSAs of their employees. Similarly, eight states have commenced the funding of their Retirement Benefit Bond Redemption Fund Accounts.”

PenCom noted that the state governments continued to make progress in the level of implementation of the CPS.

As of the first quarter of 2018, it said, the number of states that had enacted laws on the CPS stood at 27, while eight states were at the bill stage.

One state had, however, yet to commence the process of enacting a law to reform its pension system, it noted.

The commission stated that the states that had commenced remittance of pensions in the workers Retirement Savings Accounts and were funding their accrue rights were Lagos, Ogun, Kaduna, Niger, Delta, Osun and Rivers states.

It disclosed that the states that had commenced the funding of the RSAs but not funding the accrued rights were Zamfara, Kebbi, Ondo and Anambra.

PenCom stated that Imo State had yet to commence remittance of its workers’ pension contributions but that the Imo State University was currently implementing the CPS under the auspices of the Pension Reform Act 2014.

Imo State, it added, had yet to start funding its accrued rights.

It stated that Kano State had yet to transfer its pension assets or commence the funding of accrued rights.

According to the commission, the states that have yet to commence the remittance into workers’ RSAs and accrued rights funding are Sokoto, Ekiti, Kogi, Bayelsa, Nasarawa, Oyo, Katsina, Akwa Ibom, Edo, Benue, Kwara, Plateau and Cross River.

Other states in this category are Enugu, Abia, Ebonyi, Taraba, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Yobe and Adamawa.

Experts warned that non-compliance with the CPS might hinder the ability of the workers to earn their pensions when they retired from work.

The commission said it developed a road map covering a period between 12 and 18 months for the engagement of labour unions, state employees, state governments and other stakeholders to positively influence states’ compliance.

As part of the plan and in order to ensure smooth implementation, the commission stated that it conducted training for workers in some of the states.