IBADAN – Mrs Kemi Oluwasina, Head, Investment Management Team, ARM Pensions, has expressed concern over the few number of Nigerian workers registered in the pension scheme.
Oluwasina, who made the statement on Sunday in Ibadan at a customers forum, urged employers in the private sector to enlist their staff in the scheme.
She said that the current figure fell far below the target set by the World Bank for a country with a large population like Nigeria.
“I am urging small scale business owners to take advantage of the 2014 Pension Reform Act to enlist their staff in the scheme.
“We currently have a little over six million registered accounts in the scheme all over Nigeria, which is a very low figure if you consider the population of Nigeria and its working class,” she said.
According to her, the World Bank has estimated that nations like Nigeria must have 50 million registered workers in the scheme. [eap_ad_1] Oluwasina said the new Pension Act encouraged organisations with three or less staff strength to join the scheme unlike in the past when organisations must have five or more before they could join.
She said that the new Act had also increased deposit to 18 per cent of basic housing and transport allowances.
“The employer pays eight per cent while the employee pays 10 per cent. It used to be 15 per cent split equally between the two parties,” she said.
She said that depositors with ARM Pensions do not have to wait for their retirement age before accessing their funds.
She said that the provisions of the new pension Act and real estate services rendered by the company made it possible for them to access their money even before retirement.
Oluwasina said that before now, there was no provision for workers to borrow money from their pension balance.
“But the provision of the 2014 Act has made that possible, even though the guidelines on how it would work were yet to be decided and made available,’’ she said. (NAN)
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