The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has disclosed that only 112 self-funded Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) under the federal government have implemented the new pension contribution rate.
According to the Commission, under the new rates, a contribution of 10% would come from the employer and 8% from the employee, making it 18% of an employee’s monthly emolument.
The Acting Director-General of the Commission, Aisha Dahir-Umar while speaking at the public hearing organised by the House of Representatives committee on pensions on the non-remittance of pensions by employers said 845 treasury-funded MDAs were using the old contribution rate of 15%.
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Umar-Dahir, however, noted that this was the main reason why retires of the treasury-funded MDAs were yet to receive their benefits as the federal government’s total arrears of pension liabilities stood at N494.12 billion at the end of 2019.
“A large number of retirees of the treasury-funded Federal Government MDAs under the CPS are yet to receive their retirement benefits due to delay in payment of accrued pension rights by the Federal Government”, Umar-Dahir said.
A further breakdown recorded N4.5 billion for shortfalls of the pension entitlements of Head of Service, permanent secretaries and professors, N30.13 billion for Pension Protection Fund/Minimum Pension Guarantee as well as N141.3 billion for 3% increase in employer/employee pension contribution plus a 2% penalty.
To attain to the plights of retirees, the commission urged lawmakers to make provisions in budgets to clear the liabilities.
Meanwhile, the PenCom had said it was making plans to float bonds through the Debt Management Office (DMO) to fund accrued rights of retirees’.