The Director-General, National Pension Commission, Chinelo Anohu-Amazu has appeal to south east governments to adopt or implement the contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) to avail their employees of the numerous benefits of the Scheme
The DG made the appeal at the stakeholders sensitization conference on Pension Reform act 2014 organised by the National Pension Commission in Enugu recently.
According to her several states in the Federation, had adopted the CPS Prior to the enactment of the 2014 act and were at various stages of implementation but regretted that the scorecard for the South-East Zone has not been encouraging since no state has attained full implementation status.
“I would therefore like to passionately appeal to all the States and Local Governments in the South-East Zone that are yet to adopt or implement the CPS to quickly embark on doing so in order to avail their employees of the numerous benefits of the Scheme while avoiding huge future pension liabilities”.
The DG also said “Recent developments with regards to inadequate finances affecting most states of the federation is a pointer to the urgent need for states to adopt the CPS”
She also noted that the PRA 2014 had enhanced States and Local Governments participation in the CPS by expressly prescribing the coverage of employees of States and Local Governments, in addition to the Federal Public service and private sector.
She said the Enugu conference was the third in the series of such conferences scheduled to be held in all the six geopolitical zones focus on the overall developments ushered in by the PRA 2014.
The DG said that there are new developments introduced by the PRA 2014 such as the upward review of the minimum rate of pension contribution and the sanctions and penalties against infractions of the provisions of the Act saying that PRA 2014 introduced a provision that allows contributors seeking to own their primary homes, to apply part of their Retirement Savings Account balances as equity contribution for residential mortgage, subject to the Guidelines issued by the Commission.
Declaring the conference open the Enugu state governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi called on the stakeholders in the south east to avail themselves of the opportunities associated with CPS.
The governor said that Enugu state will implement fully the CPS and urged other states to adopt same.
