“It is obvious that the media ought to improve on its coverage of the pension industry by devoting more pages and airtime to it.
technology and social media could help spread awareness about what’s available for Nigeria’s labour market.”
He further observed that “12 years after the Pension Reform Act 2004 was enacted, most Nigerians do not know the difference between Contributory Pension Scheme and the PAY-AS-YOUGO defined benefit pension scheme being handled by Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD).
“If a pensioner collapses in Benin or Jalingo, the blame goes to PenCom in the media instead of the state government. Some will even cast such headlines as ‘PENCOM refuses to pay pensioners,’” he said.
Mr. Alli said this has brought to the fore the need to step up awareness on the scheme. “We need to work harder to raise the bar and bring PENSION system to national prominence like the case in the US, the UK, and others.”
The MD of Premium Pension Limited, Mr. Wilson Ideva, generated some hope when he said: “…The plane has taken off in the industry at cruising level but we are almost trying to get to it. But I believe we might seal a N20 trillion asset under management, seal more than 15 million enrolments in the industry and seal the use of ICT in the next five years.”
Mr. Alli noted that journalists’ first responsibility as the Fourth Estate of the Realm is to let Nigerians (be the leaders or the led) buy-in into pension reform.
“We are not selling the benefits and the fact-sheet enough to the public. Not much is known about the remarkable achievements of the National Pension Commission (PenCom) on the CPS. For instance, how many Nigerians are aware that as at December 2015, the total Pension Fund Assets had grown to N5.2 trillion ($26.4 billion) with total membership count of 6.8 million as at the same period.
“Statistics indicates that the number has risen to 7,006, 734 in the first quarter of 2016,” he noted.
He also tasked the media