Six states in the Northeast region of the country are yet to fully implement their contribution for the pension of its workers under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
The State are Bauchi, Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Adamawa and Taraba.
According to the record from the National Pension Commission (PenCom) obtained by patomabusinessonline on Monday, the states were at various stages of implementing the CPS as of December 2020.
The status of implementation of the CPS in the Northeast region record indicated that Adamawa enacted a law on CPS in 2013 and then drafted the CPS Bill 2020 to establish a scheme similar to Contributory Defined Benefits Scheme (CDBS) but is yet to commence pension remittance, among others.
Bauchi state drafted a CDBS bill in 2015 and recently constituted a committee on implementing the CPS, among others. Borno State drafted a bill on CPS in 2012 and forwarded a copy to PenCom for review.
In Gombe, a law on CPS was enacted in 2008 and amended to become the CDBS Law in January 2019, but has not started any remittance or other processes.
Taraba has had a CPS law since 2009 but no Pension Bureau, no registered employees and no remittances. Yobe has been operating the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS) but raised a committee on the adoption of CPS in February 2020.
Director General of PenCom, Aisha Dahir-Umar, in a recent interview said state’s compliance with the CPS will benefit the states and their workers.
“The Commission has been intensifying efforts at ensuring that State Governments comply with the CPS by providing technical assistance through its six Zonal Offices, one in each of the geo-political zones of Nigeria,” she said.
The Contributory Pension Scheme for public and private sectors was established under the Pension Reform Act 2004, which was repealed and replaced with the Pension Reform Act 2014, in 2014.
Section 4 of the Act, provides for a mandatory minimum contribution of ten and eight per cent of employee’s monthly emolument by the employer and employee respectively.
Each employee is to open a Retirement Savings Account (RSA) into which the contributions are to be paid, with a Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) licensed by the National Pension Commission, established under section 17 of the Act, to regulate and supervise pension schemes in the country.
The PFA is to manage and invest the fund in the RSA, from where a contributor will draw benefits on retirement, in line with the provisions of the Act.
