CSO Honours Aisha Dahir-Umar with Award

By Sunday Okobi

A civil society organisation, pro-democracy and anti-corruption group, Citizens Watch Advocacy Initiative (CWAI), has bestowed on the Director-General of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), Hajiya Aisha Dahir-Umar, the award of ‘The Most Outstanding and Distinguished Director-General of the Decade in Nigeria’.

According to a statement issued by the group yesterday, the decision was reached to honour Dahir-Umar due to her bold initiatives in the turn-around of the pension industry by repositioning and rebranding of the regulatory body to meet with international best practices as well as the quantum turnaround of the pension administration in Nigeria, which has attracted rating agencies across the globe.

CWAI also acknowledged the good governance structure put in place by the current management at PenCom, including the restoration of citizens’ confidence as well as attracting of investors who are willing to invest in the industry due to the transformation taking place at the apex regulatory body.

In the statement, which was issued yesterday by the Executive Secretary of CWAI, Omoba Kenneth Aigbegbele, the CSO noted that the revolutionary transformation of the industry has become the envy of not only Nigeria, but the world over.

It added that “PenCom has become a benchmark for success and a reference point, and that is why investors, including our various state governors are willing to invest in pension portfolios, at the same time eager to accept loans to better their investment at the state level.”

CWAI attributed this to the fact that “the present management under Dahir-Umar has changed the narrative, shaped opinion within and outside the country, as well as conversations of the pension industry, due to her unique management style and sensitisation on various media platforms and town hall meetings on industry ethics, standards, and fund portfolios, not only for retirees but also for the Nigerian workers at large.”

According to the statement, “CWAI has registered with a great degree of satisfaction, the astronomical rise of pension assets in the country which has captured both the formal and informal sectors (micro-pension). The repositioning of the sector in building strong institutional culture for retirees, Nigerian workers and robust management of pension funds; prompt payment of pension to retirees; her motherly role that smoothened and advanced the regulatory body’s values and ethos.”