Only few states are implementing contributory pension - Obi

There are only few states in the country that are implementing the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and this is dangerous for the future of workers.

The Chief Compliance Officer of Trustfund Pension, Mrs. Rachael Obi, expressed this position at the Employers’ Interactive Forum held recently in Lagos.

Obi said the low compliance level for the migration from the old defined benefits scheme to the contributory pension scheme posed serious risk to the future of workers in the affected states.

She revealed, “States that have registered so far are still quite few but those that are with us are doing well, especially Lagos, Delta and Rivers.”

The pension expert said states should realise that they owe their workers some level of responsibility in terms of putting in place policy that ensures that their benefits are readily available at retirement.

She was speaking on the backdrop of the huge pension liabilities associated with the old scheme which the contributory pension scheme provides a solution to.

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) had said the apathy to the new scheme is largely due to several factors at the state level, including the need to domesticate the law and pressures from labour unions due to insufficient understanding of how the new scheme works.