The unstable business atmosphere coupled with inconsistencies in government policies have been fingered as some of the reasons militating against hurried investment of pension funds. This is, however, besides the rules and guidelines stipulated in the Pension Reform Act on areas where the funds could be invested. Managing Director, Leadway Pensure Limited, Mrs. Ronke Adedeji, said these in Lagos.
She noted that the national pension Commission (PenCom) and the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) were being careful with calls by some Nigerians that the pension funds be invested in certain projects because of constant collapse of businesses without a workable arrangement to recoup the funds. She said even though such investments were done overseas, the case of Nigeria remains peculiar considering the number of investments that had collapsed without the investors getting back their funds.
She said, “Pension assets should not be considered idle money, which can be thrown about without spelt out mechanism to recover the investments. Although such investments thrive in other climes, the proposed plan should be done with clear guidelines specifying how the funds would be recovered and water-tight commitment that government policies would not affect it.”
She said although pension fund had a long period of maturity, the law also gives the contributor some leeway to access his contributions under certain conditions. “So if the contributor now comes for his money what would I tell him? How will I explain to him that his money has been invested in a business that has probably collapsed without hope of getting back the money? These things constitute part of our fear.
That is why we are very careful and following the investment guidelines spelt out in the Act,” she added. In her opinion, Head, Risk and Compliance, Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers, Ms. Idu Okwuosa, said the operators were not opposed to the demand but that their concern is the proof and guaranty for the funds. She noted that one of the ways such initiative could thrive was for government to hands off totally and allow competent private sector operators manage such infrastructure.
She said events had shown that even Public Private Partnerships (PPP) often failed due to government involvements. Meanwhile, Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp) says it will begin the deployment of an Electronic Pension Contribution Collection System (EPCCOS) on January 1, 2015. The Managing Director, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Pension Custodians, Mr Bayo Yusuf, who disclosed this in Lagos, said that the system was to drive pension remittance schedules.
He said EPCCOS would unify the way employers remit their various workers schedules as well as ease collections for Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) and Pension Fund Custodians (PFCs). Yusuf added that the electronic platform was informed by lack of specific rules on how employers would submit workers’ schedules for pension to PFAs and PFCs.
He said,”We have been faced with huge challenges of how to reconcile some schedules submitted by employers. To tackle these challenges, we have therefore come up with this electronic devise– portal. ”It will ensure that workers are credited adequately and that employers are saved the time of going around one PFA and PFC for reconciliation.”
Culled from New telegraph
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