Retirement and the fear of a solitary and almost beggarly life which used to be the fate of most civil servants as a result of the difficulty in accessing gratuities and pension made the civil service not a favourite choice among young job seekers.
Over the years, there have been woeful tales of pensioners who go through heart rending difficulties trying to access benefits and entitlements they had laboured for in their youthful age, some even died in the process!
The above scenario now seems like an old wife’s tale as the tide has changed tremendously for the better with the introduction of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) which ensures that a retiring civil servant starts getting his pension immediately upon retirement.
With the Edo State Government keying into the CPS thirteen years after the law was passed in 2004, Governor Godwin Obaseki has worked tirelessly to break the barrier and ensured the scheme becomes successful with a contribution of 10 per cent – 15 per cent on behalf of the Government and 5 per cent on behalf of the employee, payable to any Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) of their choice.
The 2021 forth (4th) quarter report recently released by PenCom shows that 25 states have enacted pension laws on the CPS, while seven states were at the bill processing stage, placing Edo far ahead of other states. The report lists Edo as one of the only four states in Nigeria that are up to date with their remittances. Since Edo keyed into the scheme in 2017, retirees have been receiving their monthly pension regularly and promptly, thereby solving the biggest challenge that confronted the old pension scheme.
The report which listed Edo State as one of the four states in the federation fully remitting workers’ pension contributions without fail, has earned the state government commendations. This, coupled with the prompt payment of workers’ salaries, has further strengthened the trust between the state government and the people.
A major advantage of this scheme is the disappearance of queues and avoidable deaths. Long gone is the era of travelling long distances to get pension payments, since payments are now made directly into the pensioners’ accounts on a monthly basis. The total compliance of the Edo State Government with the Pension Administrators makes it a certainty that the CPS has been deeply entrenched into the civil service and has come to stay.
Governor Obaseki’s embrace of the contributory pension scheme stems from his commitment to workers’ welfare, and most importantly, to ensure that those who have dedicated their lives to the services of the state reap the fruits of their labour without stress or tears. The Governor’s commitment to workers and pensioners’ welfare has endeared him to civil servants in the state.
By Nekpen Maureen Nwine
