Obaseki hailed as PenCom lists Edo, three others as only states complying with Contributory Pension for workers

Edo workers have commended the state governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki for prioritizing the welfare of civil and public servants in the state, with the government keying into the Contributory Pension Scheme and ensuring prompt payment of salaries and pensions to the workers.

The commendation comes as the National Pension Commission (PenCom) listed Edo State and three others as only states that have remitted their worker’s pension contributions fully as of December 2021, in line with the mandate of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

According to the 2021 fourth-quarter report, Q4’21, released by PenCom, while Edo, Lagos, Kaduna, and Benue are up to date with their remittances, five other states of Osun, Delta, Ekiti, Ondo, Anambra and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which are also remitting both employer and employee contributions, have backlogs in remittances.

Analysis of the report shows that 25 states had enacted pension laws on the CPS, while seven states were at the bill processing stage.

Out of the five states operating other pension schemes, four states adopted the Contributory Defined Benefits Scheme (CDBS), while one state operates the Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS).

The Contributory Pension Scheme was introduced in Edo by the Governor Obaseki-led administration in 2017, with retiree workers under the scheme receiving their monthly pensions regularly and promptly, outliving the biggest challenge that confronted the old pension scheme.

A retiree, Emmanuel Edosa, noted, “We are grateful to the state governor for putting Edo workers and retirees at the forefront of his government’s reforms and programmes. Since we migrated to the CPS in 2017, we have continued to benefit from the numerous gains of the scheme.

“One major advantage of this scheme over the previous is the absence of queues. Also, workers do not have to travel long distances to get their pension payments or even present themselves for periodic pay parades since payments are made directly to our accounts through banks on a monthly basis.”