18 years after, 22 states yet to enroll workers in monthly pension scheme

Seventeen years after the mandatory Contributory Pension Scheme was enacted, 22 states are yet to enrol workers into the scheme.

Any hope of implementing it this year has also been dashed as the states have failed to make provisions for the new pension requirements in their 2022 budgets.

According to the latest quarterly report from the National Pension Commission, PenCom only Benue, Kaduna, Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Lagos, Ondo, as well as Osun are currently enrolled in the CPS scheme designed to help eliminate the challenges associated with Pension funds.

States yet to key into any pension schemes are Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Plateau, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, Katsina, Sokoto, Zamfara, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Oyo, Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo, Adamawa, Gombe as well as Rivers.

PenCom report also showed that some of the listed states have at one point tried to implement the CPS but with hitches.

For instance, Niger State enacted a Law on the CPS in 2006. It suspended implementation of the CPS in April 2015 but amended its Law in 2017 to extend its transition period to exempt some employees from the CPS. The state resumed deduction of 10.5 per cent for employers and 7.5 per cent for employee pension contributions in June 2020 but remitted for only June and July 2020. It is currently deducting employer and employee pension contributions but not remitting the same to employee RSAs.

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Kebbi State on the other hand has enacted a law on the CPS and is remitting only 7.5 per cent of employee pension contributions.

Ogun State enacted a law on the CPS, deducted 7.5 per cent for employers and 7.5 per cent for employee pension contributions but stopped remitting the same since 2015.

Anambra remitted employer pension contributions up to December 2017 and employee pension contributions up to August 2020 for the state employees. It remitted employer and employee pension contributions up to August 2018 for the local government employees.

However, some states are operating their own pension scheme as mandated by the Pension Act.

For instance, Jigawa State enacted a law on the Contributory Defined Benefit Scheme, CDBS, in 2005 and further amended the law in 2015.

Jigawa is remitting 17 per cent for employers and eight per cent for employee pension contributions.

The state remitted employee and employer pension contributions for December 2020 to March 2021, but yet to remit the backlog of employee and employer pension contributions for May 2020 to November 2020.

Yobe State is operating the Defined Benefit Scheme, DBS while Kano enacted a law on the CDBS in 2006 and implemented the scheme.

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