Trustfund Pensions pays N200m to pensioners

Trustfund Pensions Plc, one of the pension fund administrators (PFAs) managing workers/retirees’ contributions under the Contributory Pensions Scheme (CPS) in Nigeria has so far paid out about N200 million to 15,000 contributors.

The CPS introduced in 2004 is an improved pensions administration aimed to eliminate the difficulties pensioners and retirees underwent under the old pension regime accessing their gratuities and pensions. Since the CPS, Nigeria has seen some sanity brought into pensions management with a departure from the ugly scenario where retirees/pensioners collapsed waiting on queues in government offices to collect their stipends.

The CPS law (as amended 2014) requires an employer/employee to contribute at least ten/eight percentage respectively of the employee’s monthly emoluments into a pool managed by a PFA of the employee’s choice which the employee accesses at retirement or attainment of fifty years of age. A contributor who loses his/her job without securing another job within a space of four months is allowed by the law to access only 25% of his/her contribution.

Jacob Oladetohun, regional manager, Trustfund Pensions Plc, told BusinessDay at the 2015 employer forum/interactive session, organised by the PFA in Lagos, that the company has remained on top of its game since commencing business and continued to respond to contributors’ needs including timely processing/ payment of accrued benefits as well as investing the funds in tested instruments that guarantee returns for customers.

The PFA equally emphasised the importance of proper documentation by individual contributors to facilitate processing and payment of benefits whenever the need arises, as well as the need to consider will writing a necessary as this helps in reducing the rigour associated with accessing the benefits of a contributor in the event of death.

The interactive session according to Oladetohun, is one that helps Trustfund Pensions Plc to sensitise employers on modalities for remittance of contributions, educate them on their regulatory responsibilities, minimise the growth of un-reconciled contributions and transitional contributory funds as well as encourage employers’ compliance with the CPS.

 

JOSHUA BASSEY