The National Pension Commission PenCom says pension contributors agitating to leave the contributory pension scheme do not have a full grasp of the security the scheme offers and how it works to guarantee better benefits at retirement.
This was the position of the Director General Omolola Oloworaran at the Media Parley in Lagos. She cleared that the agitation to leave by the contributors was driven by quest for better benefits which she chipped in was their right but does not capture the need for security of funds and benefits at retirement.
“The way to get better benefit is not to exit the scheme. We will continue to engage across every level until we are able to get people to trust the CPS and to know whatever you are looking for you can work it out within the CPS. I know that the one at the forefront now is the Police who want to exit. What we said to them is the CPS offers security of funds, the scheme is also sustainable because the contributions are coming in from the employees and the Federal government. Its something that has continued over 20 years and we will continue with that process.
“In the past we have seen how police pension fund were mismanaged, we don’t want to go back. The Nigeria Police work hard in protecting citizens. I believe they deserve better benefits as well but exiting the scheme isn’t the way forward. They can’t trust the management of the scheme outside the CPS. Somebody might just disappear with the funds. Under the CPS that cannot happen,” she stated.
“Based on the last estimate it was given that it will cost the scheme N3.5tr for the police to exit the scheme. I told my team that is not the real cost, because you are not looking at the opportunity cost which is about N1.5tr; by the time you add up the opportunity cost to what it will actually cost you go into N5tr,” she said.
Diffusing the exit agitation Oloworaran said, “Why do you want to exit a scheme and go into what you are unsure of. Ideally we need better advocacy to engage the Police so that they understand that under the CPS their contributions are safe, secure and the process of funding is sustainable and affordable to the government.”
