Edo State, Lagos, Kaduna and eight other states as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), are the only states that are fully implementing the contributory pension scheme, the federal government of Nigeria has said.
A publication by the nation’s apex pension regulator, the National Pension Commission (PenCom), listed the other states as, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Delta, Anambra, Rivers, Jigawa and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
PenCom said Kebbi and Zamfara states are remitting only the Employee portion of pension contributions while Kwara, Benue, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Plateau, Bauchi, Katsina and Borno states are still at the Bill stage of the contributory pension scheme implementation.
Edo State was one of the early birds to enact a Pension Law following the repeal of the 2004 Pension Reformed Act in 2014, and thereafter commenced the remittance of the employer and employee contributions.
The participation of state governments in the contributory pension scheme is in line with the provisions of the Pension Reformed Act 2014, a product of the repealed Pension Reformed Act 2004.
The Pension Reformed Act 2014 makes it mandatory for states and local governments to implement contributory pension schemes for their employees.
PenCom said the federal government reformed the pension scheme in response to the challenges that plagued the Defined Benefit Schemes in the public sector and the different pension schemes that existed in the private sector.
