PenCom Assures Pensioners of Addressing Accrued Rights Problem

Ebere Nwoji

Against the backdrop of continued delay in payment of retiring workers’ benefits as a result of delay in the release of their accrued rights by the federal government, the National Pension Commission (PenCom) has assured that it would collaborate with stake holders to resolve all accrued rights related problems causing unnecessary delays in payment of retiring workers’ benefits .

The Acting Director General PenCom, Ms. Omolara Oloworaran, gave the assurance at the workshop on the online enrollment application for desk officers of Federal Government treasury -funded MDAs held in Lagos.

She noted that the delay in release of accrued rights of workers by Federal Government negated the objectives of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

The Accrued Pension Rights represents an employee’s benefits for the past years of service up to June 2004, when the Pension Reform Act (PRA) that birthed the CPS, came into effect.

The act establishing the CPS and PenCom insists that retiring workers can only access their retirement benefits when their Accrued Rights were released to add to the savings in their Retirement Savings Accounts.

“Although the current delay in release of funds by the Federal Government for the payment of retirees’ accrued rights negates the cardinal objective of the CPS of payment of retirement benefits as and when due, I would like to assure you that this situation will soon be resolved. It is also heart-warming to report to you that concerted efforts by the critical stakeholders have reached advanced stage, to not only clear all outstanding pension liabilities of the Federal Government under the CPS, but to also put in place lasting solutions that will address the problems of inadequate funding and delay in fund releases for the payment of accrued rights,” Oloworaran stated.