The Nigeria Labour Congress says the major challenge facing contributory pension in Nigeria is the non-remittance of deductions from salaries of workers to their Pension Fund Administrators.
The President of the NLC, Ayuba Wabba, made the statement in an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Thursday.
According to him, the non-remittance of deductions from salaries of workers to match with the contributions of their employers is the main challenge confronting the scheme.
Wabba said: “I think it is a major threat now to the scheme and that needs to be nipped in the bud if we want the scheme to be sustained.
“We were informed in October last year that even the Federal Government has not been able to remit its own contributions and those of the employees of the Federal Government.”
Wabba said because the scheme was funded from contributions, if there were no remittances pensioners would suffer.
He said the non-remittance of the funds was an infringement on the law “because the law provides that contributions of the employer and employee must be remitted within a specific period of time’’.
Wabba said the law must be respected ‘’if we want the scheme to be sustained”.
He said that by not funding the scheme “it is obvious that we are heading towards its collapse.’’
He said: “So it is time we canvass for that, it is part of what NLC is demanding from contributors because we want the scheme to succeed and continue to serve the interest of workers.’’
Wabba pointed out that workers required the funds in retirement as they might be too weak to fight on the street to get the monies paid them.
He said pensioners on the contributory scheme should get their
monies immediately on retirement but if they had issues of accessing the funds, they should seek NLC’s intervention.
Wabba said some pensioners had difficulties in accessing their Retirement Saving Account because while they were working they did not remit their contributions or were not monitoring their remittances to their PFAs.
He advised civil servants under the contributory pension scheme to insist that their contributions and their employers’ should be remitted to their RSAs promptly.
Wabba also stated: “It is their right and NLC does not expect them to sleep on their rights, they do not have to do this when they are on the verge of retiring.
“No, it is when they are in service that they should secure their future so that when they retire they do not suffer.”
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