The Rationale for the Pension Reform Act- Odunze Reginald C

The origin of pension’s dates back to ancient time, the Holy Bible in the book of Numbers 8 vs. 25, stated “but at the age of fifty, they must retire from the regular service and work no longer” and according to King James version, it states” And from the age of fifty years they shall ceased waiting upon the service thereof and shall serve no more”

Why then do people view retirement as a wreck, the reason is that they have not save enough to cater for retirement during old age. There is a strong connection between planning, enough pension pot (Retirement Savings Account balances) and happy retirement.

And according to Robert Kiyosaki, in his book Rich dad, poor dad, he noted that “people work for two reasons, to save for retirement and to make lots of money” Continuing Kiyosaki noted that “an individual’s reality is the boundary between faith and self confidence, and a person’s financial reality will not clear until he or she go beyond the fears and doubts of his or her own self imposed limits. Those self imposed limits are what limit the retiree from enjoying a happy an successful retirement

Pension is an important issue, as a time will come when you will longer be able to  work, at that time , you fall back on your pension .

What is pension?  According to Wikipedia “A pension is a fixed sum to be paid regularly to a person, typically following retirement from service. There are many different types of pensions, including defined benefit plans, defined contribution plans, as well as several others. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is paid in regular installments, while the latter is paid in one lump sum.”

Continuing Wikipedia noted that” The terms retirement plan and superannuation tend to refer to a pension granted upon retirement of the individual. Retirement plans may be set up by employers, the government or other institutions such as employer associations or trade unions. Called retirement plans in the United States, they are commonly known as pension schemes in the United Kingdom and Ireland and superannuation plans  in Australia and New Zealand.

A pension created by an employer for the benefit of an employee is commonly referred to as an occupational or employer pension. Labor unions, the government, or other organizations may also fund pensions. Occupational pensions are a form of deferred compensation, usually advantageous to employee and employer for tax reasons. Other vehicles (certain lottery payouts.

The common use of the term pension is to describe the payments a person receives upon retirement, usually under pre-determined legal or contractual terms. A recipient of a retirement pension is known as a pensioner or retiree

The following are the rationale for the Reform

Most public sectors schemes are unfunded

Unsustainable pension liabilities

Weak and inefficient administration of the scheme in both private and public

Aging make defined benefit scheme unsustainable

Many workers in the private sector were not covered by any form retirement benefits arrangement

Existence of diversified arrangement which were largely unregulated in the private sector.

There were also mismanagement fund, corruption and large scale misappropriation of public fund

There were no organized data base of the pension contributions

The idea of enacting the pension reform act 2004 came up when the committee set by the federal government in conjunction with bureau of public enterprises’ on the sale of NITEL and NEPA. Discover that the foreign buyers could not price it effectively because of huge pension liabilities. Because one question they continuously ask is “are you operating define benefit scheme or define contribution scheme” ?.

The committee to the presidency and the result was formation of a committee to look into ways of reforming the pension scheme. The result was the pension reform act 2004 this has been amended as Pension Reform Act 20I4

Odunze Reginald is the Lead Consultant, Chareg Consulting, a management and marketing  consultant  a social media and social marketing consultant , you can visit our twitter anchor @dunzreg, find us on Facebook @ Reginald odunze and reginaldodunze.com, at google+ @ Reginald Odunze and at Linkedin@reginald odunze

10 Things you need to start doing 5 years to your retirement- Odunze Reginald.

Image credited to Huffington post

Pension is an important issue, as a time will come when you will longer be able to work, at that time, you fall back on your pension.

The origin of pension’s dates back to ancient time, the Holy Bible in the book of Numbers 8 vs. 25, stated “but at the age of fifty, they must retire from the regular service and work no longer” and according to King James version, it states” And from the age of fifty years they shall ceased waiting upon the service thereof and shall serve no more

What is pension?  According to Wikipedia “A pension is a fixed sum to be paid regularly to a person, typically following retirement from service. There are many different types of pensions, including defined benefit plans, defined contribution plans, as well as several others. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is paid in regular installments, while the latter is paid in one lump sum.”

Continuing Wikipedia noted that” The terms retirement plan and superannuation tend to refer to a pension granted upon retirement of the individual. Retirement plans may be set up by employers, insurance companies, the government or other institutions such as employer associations or trade unions. Called retirement plans in the United States, they are commonly known as pension schemes in the United Kingdom and Ireland and superannuation plans  in Australia and New Zealand. Retirement pensions are typically in the form of a guaranteed life annuity, thus insuring against the risk of longevity.

A pension created by an employer for the benefit of an employee is commonly referred to as an occupational or employer pension. Labor unions, the government, or other organizations may also fund pensions. Occupational pensions are a form of deferred compensation, usually advantageous to employee and employer for tax reasons. Many pensions also contain an additional insurance aspect, since they often will pay benefits to survivors or disabled beneficiaries. Other vehicles (certain lottery payouts, for example, or an annuity) may provide a similar stream of payments.

The common use of the term pension is to describe the payments a person receives upon retirement, usually under pre-determined legal or contractual terms. A recipient of a retirement pension is known as a pensioner or retiree.

But the period of retirement, its delicate and money consuming so an intending retiree need to do the following 5 years before he or she retires and they are as follows:

1 Good relationship with your family, the period of retirement is always a period of seclusion, therefore an intending retiree should be up and doing in having a good relationship with his or her family

2 Build a house where you are retiring no matter how small it is: in an article on pension destinations, analysts are of the view that it is always good to have a house before retirement. The agony of retirees using their retirement money to build a house cannot be quantified.

3 Make sure you have start offsetting your debt, Debt has been a part of some people life, especially in organized countries where they transact with credit cards, it’s imperative that  the intending retirees offset any debt that will affect his life or her during retirement.

4 Start kick starting a business or a vocation that will keep you busy during retirement; a recent Merrill Lynch survey found that nearly three out of four people over 50 said their ideal retirement would include working. Which is fine. Staying connected to the work world in some way can not only offer financial benefits, it can also keep retirees more active and socially engaged”

5 Start adjusting your life toward old age and start shedding harmful habits: Harmful habits are injurious to life, they include, a life of smoking, drinking and other related life pattern that affects ones health and life, it should be noted that one of the serious bills affecting senior citizen is increasing medical bills, as old age has with it issues pertaining to health and medical wellness.

6 Update your relevant information: information is key and it needs to be updated at every point in time, this will ease the retiree’s application when accessing his benefit.

7 Get a will; experience has shown that it takes up to six months to get a letter of Administration, added to the high cost of court and the legal charges of the lawyer facilitating it. But if there is will, it becomes increasingly easy to access the fund, where the contributor has joined his ancestors

8 Plan to increase your contribution, the main aim of additional voluntary contribution is to increase the pension pot as in the United States and Europe and Retirement Savings Account balances in Nigeria, reduces the tax burden and make retirement a safe haven for retirees.

9 Start having positive attitude towards life, even if you don’t feel it, Some people have that mindset that they will not live to see their pension and like the Biblical Job what they fear most always comes to them.

In my experience in talking to people about pension, some will always say will I    live to  have the pension? I always tell them, to maintain a positive attitude towards life.

Henry Ford said “Think you can, think you can’t, either way you will be right”

10 Develop a special relationship with your God: Nothing is more important than an existing good relationship with your maker, there is inner sense of joy and happiness when you are in tune with God.

Odunze Reginald is the Lead Consultant, Chareg Consulting, a management and marketing  consultant  a social media and social marketing consultant , you can visit our twitter anchor @dunzreg, find us on Facebook @ Reginald odunze and reginaldodunze.com, at google+ @ Reginald Odunze and at Linkedin@reginald odunze.

Reps summon Buratai, IGP over Southern Kaduna attacks — 18th January 2017 - Kemi Yesufu

The House of Representatives has summoned the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.Gen Tukur Buratai, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris and the Director-General of the Department of State Security (DSS), Lawal Daura, over recent attacks in the Kaura Federal Constituency of Southern Kaduna. 

This was subsequent to the adoption of a motion  sponsored by Gideon Gwani. 

Condemning attacks on innocent Nigerians including women and children, the lawmakers urged President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the Armed Forces and the Police to deal decisively with the perpetrators of the attacks, be more proactive in identifying the exact areas from where the unidentified gunmen launch their attacks from.  

In his lead debate, the lawmaker stated that attacks between January 6-9,  at Tachirak, Adu and Tsonje villages of Kagoro town in Kaura Federal Constituency of Southern Kaduna  led to the death of 13  people.

He said despite the 24-hour curfew imposed on the area and the presence of men of the Armed Forces and the Police, gunmen have continued to attack villages and unleash mayhem, while the security personnel deployed remained in the township. 

Taking a similar position, Baballe Bashir asked Speaker Yakubu Dogara how his meeting went with President Muhammadu Buhari, following the mandate from the House. 

The lawmaker who said he read of the outcome of the meeting in the newspaper as part of a report on the Speaker’s welcome address to the House on resumption from the Christmas break, further emphasised that it was time for the current leaders of the country to find a lasting solution to the crisis. 

In his response, the speaker described as satisfactory, President Buhari’s explanation on the action taken by the Federal Government to deal with those carrying out the killing. 

Dogara however said that the House would be compelled to seek explanation from heads of security agencies if the crisis continues. 

Though a date has not been fixed for the closed door session with heads of security agencies, the House in the meantime, mandated its Committees on Army, Air Force, Police Affairs, Interior and Internal Security and Intelligence to analyse the situation and proffer solutions to the security challenges in the area.

The joint committee is expected to report back within four weeks.

Culled from Sun