The establishment of Zonal Offices of National Pension Commission in all the six geopolitical Zones of the country is part of efforts of PenCom to decentralize its activities and bring the administration of pension closer to the government and people of the states.

The Acting Director General, National Pension Commission, Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, who disclosed this during the official opening of the North-Central zonal office of the National Pension Commission in Ilorin, said five point sixty-one contributors have been registered into the Compulsory Pension Scheme.

According to her, amendment of the Pension Reform Act 2004 which had passed through second reading in both chambers of National Assembly is in progress with the recent conclusion of a public hearing between the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service Matter and House Committee on Pension.

Anohu-Amazu therefore appealed to all stakeholders to visit the offices to make enquiries, lodge complains and seek education on compulsory pension scheme.

"The commission had remained steadfast in the implementation of the Compulsory Pension Scheme such that within these few years of existence some modest achievements have been realized.

"There is also the generation of large pool of investment funds of over N3.60 trillion investments in various financial instruments, which marks a phenomenal growth when compare with huge estimated pension liabilities in the public sector prior to the reform in 2004," she said.

In his address, the Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, called on the pension administrators in Nigeria to institutionalize transparency and accountability in order to sustain public confidence in pension funds as investment instrument.

He noted that pension schemes need to retain the trust of the investing public in the integrity of the service in order to sustain patronage, saying that the contributory pension scheme would be introduced in Kwara State as soon as the state legislature passed the draft bill on the scheme.

"In doing this, we will not only ensure a positive public perception of the scheme but also attract more profitable investments in pension instruments," he added.

Ahmed was optimistic that the establishment of the North-Central Zonal office would enable the states in the zone to key into the contributory pension scheme as soon as possible.