Thirty states across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones are yet to fully implement the federal government’s Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) has said.

In a report released yesterday, PENCOM hinted that only seven states including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have fully implemented the scheme with regular and up-to-date remittance of pension contributions, the establishment of a pension bureau, and enactment of pension law.

The report issued by PENCOM spokesman, Peter Aghahowa, listed the complying states as at September 2019 as Kaduna, Anambra, Ekiti, Ondo, Edo and Delta.

In the North Central zone, only the FCT has established a pension bureau and is up-to-date with remittances of pension contributions, while Benue, Kogi and Nasarawa have enacted CPS laws but have no pension bureaus in place.

Although Niger State has established a pension bureau, it suspended the implementation of the CPS in April 2015 and has since stopped remitting pension contributions. Kwara and Plateau States are yet to enact the CPS law.

Five states in the North East zone: Borno, Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe and Taraba, are yet to commence remitting pension contributions while Yobe is still operating the Defined Benefits Scheme.

Also in North East zone, only Adamawa, Gombe and Taraba have enacted CPS laws but none has established a pension bureau.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that in the North-West Zone, only Kaduna has fully implemented CPS with regular and up-to-date remittance of pension contributions, establishment of pension bureau, registration of employees with PFAs and consistent funding of accrued rights with five per cent of total monthly bill.

Of all the North-West states, only Katsina has neither enacted CPS law nor established pension bureau, while Jigawa and Kebbi which had pension bureaus, were only remitting portions of the pension contributions.

Kano State, without a pension board, deducts pension contributions under the management of the board of trustees but yet to transfer the pension asset to a licensed pension operator.

In the South East region, PENCOM said that except for Anambra State which fully complies with the implementation of the CPS scheme, Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo were defaulting.

The commission said that, Ekiti and Ondo States in the South West region were remitting pension contributions, while Ogun and Osun had huge backlogs, Lagos did not provide information on its remittance, while Oyo was yet to commence the remittance of pension contributions.

PENCOM stated that all the South West states have enacted CPS laws and established pension bureaus.

In the South-South, Edo and Delta States are up-to-date in their pension contributions, while Rivers and Bayelsa were yet to commence the remittance of pension contributions.

In Rivers, contributions made under the repealed law were being refunded to exempted employees, while Akwa Ibom and Cross River did not even have a CPS law, PENCOM said.

PENCOM spokesman, Aghahowa clarified that the commission did not release the report to undermine or embarrass any state but to intimate employees on the status of their state in terms of their pension contributions.

“With the information provided, workers can hold their states to do the needful in terms of paying their pension up-to-date to guarantee and protect their retirement,” he said.

Agahowa said that the commission would continue to dialogue with the states to obey the law because the PENCOM Act does not empowers it to enforce implementation on the states.

(NAN)

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