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N4trn Pension Fund not under threat – PenCom

By BusinessNews Staff on May 6, 2014

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has described as baseless the insinuation that the federal government has approved the withdrawal of men of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

The regulator also assured Nigerians that the licensing of a new Pension Fund Administrator (PFA), NPF Pensions Limited, to manage the pension savings of men of the force pending the opening of the transfer window would not pose any threat whatsoever to the scheme.

The head of PenCom’s Communication Unit, Mr. Emeka Onuora, gave this assurance in a statement in Abuja at the weekend.

He said necessary measures had been put in place by the commission to ensure that the NPF Pensions would operate like any other PFA, managing pension fund without keeping custody of it as provided for in the Pension Reform Act, 2004.

A national daily (not THISDAY) reported that the N4 trillion accumulated pension savings of workers in the country is under threat following the approval of the withdrawal of the police from the CPS by the federal government.

Describing the report as misleading, Onuora said: “The federal government has never granted any approval to the Nigeria Police to pull out from the CPS. On the contrary, the personnel of the police are still under the CPS by virtue of Section 1 of the Pension Reform Act, 2004.”

He also said there were no threats whatsoever to either the contributory pension scheme or the N4 trillion accumulated pension savings of Nigerian workers.

“The issue of threat to pension assets does not arise under the CPS because the management and custody of pension assets are respectively undertaken by separate licensed operators, namely PFAs and Pension Fund Custodians (PFCs), under the strict supervision of the commission.

“Accordingly, the NPF Pensions Limited will operate like any other licensed PFA where the pension assets under its management will be held in custody by licensed PFCs under the supervision of the commission,” Onuora assured.

Onuora noted that rather than approve the withdrawal of the police from the scheme, government accepted the recommendation of the Oransanye committee that with the exception of the military which had already been granted exemption, no federal government institution or force should be exempted from the contributory pension scheme.

He said government considered the submissions made by the Nigeria Police and decided that the men of the force should remain under the CPS and seek administrative solutions to the grievances within the framework of the pension law.

According to him, the police authorities incorporated NPF Pensions as a limited liability company and applied for licence to operate as a PFA exclusively for the police personnel in order to address their peculiar concerns.

“NPF Pensions Limited was found to have satisfied all the normal stringent Approval-in-Principle conditions without any concessions. Consequently, the commission granted the NPF Pensions Limited an Approval-in-Principle for a licence to operate as a PFA,” he stressed.

He said NPF Pensions would be managed independently by professionals who pass the Fit and Proper Persons test, meet the due diligence requirements approved by the commission in line with the guidelines for appointment to board and top management positions of PFAs and PFCs.

Onuora also assured that no police officer would be denied the right to transfer his pension savings to any other PFA but that would be when the transfer window is finally opened.

“Although the NPF Pensions Limited will be exclusively for police personnel, every police officer will, in line with section 11(2) of the PRA 2004, be at liberty to transfer to another PFA of his/her choice as soon as the transfer window is opened by the commission,” Onuora stressed.

The head of communications said PenCom had developed an operational framework guiding the reassignment of Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) and transfer of records of all Nigeria Police contributors to the NPF Pensions Limited over an 18 month period to ensure smooth take off the company.
“The commission continued to engage other licensed operators and stakeholders on the modalities for reassigning PINs and transfer of records to make the exercise smooth and for the benefit of the pension industry,” he assured.

[This Day]

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