Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers increases interface with contributors, retirees

As part of efforts to boost participation in the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and ensure that the over 73 million employed Nigerians have retirement savings account, Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited, has organized the first leg of the 2017 edition of its employers’ forum. The forum, started three years ago, is part of the PFA’s strategic approach to engaging industry stakeholders on ways to strengthen the Nigerian pensions industry.

The employers’ forum, titled Partnering to Deliver Excellent Pension Administration Services, will be held in eight cities across the country, with the Benin forum, which held on Thursday, 23 March 2017, kick-starting the engagements. Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers said it identified employers as a critical stakeholder in the pension industry and has designed the forum to engage them and encourage their buy-in into the CPS.

Chief Executive, Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited,  Eric Fajemisin, said employers remain the pivot upon which the sustainability of the pension scheme rests and as such it is imperative to engage them on their key roles and how those roles impact the pension scheme. Employers must show commitment in terms of ensuring their employees have retirement savings accounts and funding of those accounts through regular remittances, Fajemisin said.

Fajemisin, who was represented by the Executive Director, Investments, Oladele Sotubo, said: “There is a clear need to ensure the rapid growth of the Contributory Pension Scheme by increasing its uptake by Nigerians. Latest figures from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics showed that the country has 73.4 million working Nigerians. Of this number only about 10% (7.3 million) are captured in the CPS. This forum is designed to bring together employers and pension experts where knowledge and information can be shared on the pension business and how to increase participation in the scheme.”

Some of the expectations this year’s employers’ forum highlighted included: derivable benefits of participation in the pension scheme; safeguards put in place to protect pension funds; expected participants in the pension scheme; ways to enhance collaborations to move Nigeria’s pension industry forward; the role of an employer/employee in the Contributory Pension Scheme; the challenges and the opportunities in the pension industry; and how pension assets can be deployed to support sustainable development in the country. Other equally important issues examined are contributors’ access to their RSAs, claims processing, withdrawal from the pension scheme, returns on investment on pension funds, annuity and regulatory oversight, among others.

Fajemisin thus called on employers and other stakeholders to constantly engage to fashion out how sustainable growth of the industry can be achieved and more importantly, ways of ensuring workers enjoy a level of comfort while in retirement and create economic prosperity for all.

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