Christian Appolos
The Conference of Civil Society of Nigeria has commended the management of the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) under Hajia Aisha Dahir – Umar for developing an online enrolment application as well as commencement of payment of 2.5% Pension differentials to retirees.
Speaking to newsmen in Abuja, the Chairperson of the Conference of Civil Society of Nigeria, Comrade Adams Otakwu said “this Initiative by the National Pension Commission PENCOM to develop the online enrolment application is innovative, commendable and consistent with global best practice of pension administration.”
He added that “the design of the Application to register, verify and enroll prospective retirees of Treasury–Funded Federal Government MDAs would go a long way in mitigating many bottlenecks associated with previous experiences.
“With the planned pilot of test running the application with real time data across selected MDAs in the six Geo – Political Zones and the Federal Capital Territory, as well as going live afterwards, there is need for cooperation and compliance from prospective retirees and other stakeholders in order to maximize the benefits and opportunities that the program presents.”
Otakwu further commended PENCOM on the commencement of payment of 2.5% differentials specified by the pension reform act (PRA) to retirees in line with the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The payment of 2.5% differentials would greatly boost the Retirement Savings Account RSA balances of the beneficiaries towards better retirement benefits and resolve major gridlocks around pension rights and benefits of retirees in the last 7 years.
“We highly commend the Director General of PENCOM, Hajia Aisha Umar for her visionary leadership of reforming and repositioning the Nigerian Pension Industry to be a major contributor to National Economy.
“We take the occasion to call for more pension education in order to drive greater inclusion of the informal sector in some of these programs,” he said.
