Olu Samuel
A professor of Business Administration at the Federal University,Lokoja, Professor Mathew Olasehinde Fashagba has called for the reforms of Nigerian pension scheme to enable it meets the requirements adequacy of pensioners.
Professor Fashagba who delivered the 25th inaugural lecture of the Federal University Lokoja on Wednesday evening said the reforms were necessary because the present contributory pension scheme has fallen to meet the requirements the guarantee adequate retirement benefits.
“When an Act is passed but fails to achieve its objectives, it becomes necessary to review it urgently. In the case of Nigeria’s Contributory Pension Scheme, the Act has not successfully provided adequate retirement benefits.”
He therefore listed some recommendations that must be considered for there to be retirement benefits adequacy in the country.
According to him, access to pension benefits must be reviewed probably from the 50 years in the current Act to not less than 60 years as it is the case in other countries like Netherland which just reviewed their retirement age from 65 to 67 to sustain their pension system leadership in the world.
He said that there should be a guaranteed minimum pension for retiree which should be complemented by the government if need be through special legitimized funds created for that purpose.
Professor Fashagba said that Government must provide funds to complement pension benefits for retirees with little amount into the retirement savings account to ensure that no retiree suffers old age poverty.
He said that Pension benefit should be seen and accorded the same importance with employee’s wages and be given timely remittance. Government should be able to demonstrate willingness to bring to justice any defaulter of timely remittance.
He also advocates Good economic management to prevent old age poverty. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure stability of the nation’s currency while Corruption must be completely eliminated.
Professor Fashagba called for “De-politicization of the pension system in Nigeria as Computation of Pension, annuity, life insurance etc., required rigorous training not for every Harrison and Dickson on the street but for those with professional training for it”.
According to him, “political consideration should be down-played in constituting pension management team. Undermining professional training and skills for political consideration is akin to a systematic designing of inevitable failure in the pension system.”
He said that Government should enforce compliance on the private organization with more than 15 employees on the compulsory contributory pension scheme as provided by the 2014 Pension Reform Act and show willingness for both public and private organizations to ensure purchase life insurance policy for all employees as provided in the scheme.
“There must be living wages for the workers if there will be retirement benefit that will preclude old age poverty. In either case, retirement benefit is a percentage of workers’ emoluments, hence if the wages cannot prevent poverty for workers, definitely, pension that is a percentage of it will not prevent poverty at old age,” he added.