Cynthia Ezekwe
Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp), has urged members of the National Assembly to revise the pension law, allowing for offshore investment of pension funds to mitigate against inflation and naira devaluation.
The association also stressed the need to increase pension contributions for workers to guard against old age poverty being triggered by rising inflation and naira devaluation.
PenOp made the appeal at its 4th National Assembly Retreat, held for members of the House Committee on Pensions and members of the senate committee on establishment and public service.
Speaking at the retreat tagged, “The CPS: Navigating Challenges and Unlocking a Secured Future for Pensioners,” Dave Uduanu, a member of PenOp and managing director of Access Pensions, stated that the economy needs to be domesticated and rely less on dollars.
“Regarding devaluation, what we need to do as a country is that we need to domesticate our economy. As we domesticate our economy and rely less on dollars, we can achieve more sustainable savings and inflation in real terms. But until we do that, the safeguard we have is to allow some of the pension funds to be invested offshore,’’ Uduanu added.
On his part, Donald Onuoha, managing director of Fidelity Pension, stated that there is a need to increase pension contributions from the present 18 percent to a higher value.
“We need to re-echo the need to increase the pension contributions from the present 18 per cent to something higher. This will guard against old age poverty which is being triggered by rising inflation,” he added.
Meanwhile, the National Assembly members have asked the pension operators to identify sections of the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2014, to be amended, pledging to ensure thorough review of the pension law to facilitate a comfortable lifestyle for retirees.
