Lagos Amends Pension Laws, Raises Workers’ Savings to 18%

• Lagos Amends Pension Laws, Raises Workers’ Savings to 18%

The Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, has signed into law the amendment of the Lagos State Pension Reform Law which increased the contribution rates under the Contributory Pension Scheme to 18 per cent.

A statement from the Lagos State Pension Commission said, “The State Government’s contributions have now been increased to 10 per cent from 7.5 per cent, while the employees’ contribution is eight per cent from 7.5 per cent. This is to make life more comfortable for employees who retire from the state’s public service.”

Lagos State said it presented Retirement Benefit Bond Certificates worth N1.001bn to 177 public service retirees in March.

It stated that the payment made into the Retirement Savings Account of the retirees represented government’s obligations under the discontinued Pay as You Go Pension scheme.

From April, 2007 that the state had transited to the Contributory Pension Scheme, it added that it had consistently remitted contributions into employees RSAs.

The Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions, Dr Akintola Oke, who represented the governor during the bond presentation in Lagos, stated that under the administration of Ambode, a total number of 10,601 retirees from the mainstream service, Local Government/ State Universal Basic Education, Teachers Establishments Training & Pensions Office and parastatals of government had received accrued pension rights of N43.63bn.

The Director-General, LASPEC, Mrs Folashade Onanuga, in her welcome address, gave words of encouragement to the retirees and advised them to be wary of engaging in business ventures that appeared to have high risk.

She informed the retirees that the issue of identification cards which had been in the pipeline for some time had been concluded, and the issuance of the cards would begin in April, 2019.