Kwara State Government has advised pension fund operators across the country to uphold the culture of transparency and accountability in order to sustain the confidence that the Nigerian public repose in them.

The State Governor, Mr. Abdulfatah Ahmed, made the call during the official opening of the North-central zonal office of the National Pension Commission (PenCom) in Ilorin recently.

He observed that like most investment products, pension schemes need to earn and sustain the trust of the working people, retirees and the general public in the integrity of the service in order to sustain patronage.

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

Ahmed assured stakeholders that the state government would implement contributory pension scheme as soon as the state’s legislature passed the draft bill on the scheme.

He noted that the contributory pension scheme, in just nine years, was able to generate a pool of investible funds to the tune of N3.2 trillion, which he described as commendable, and expressed optimism that the establishment of the North-central Zonal office would move states in the zone to embrace contributory pension scheme.

Meanwhile, the Acting Director General of PenCom, Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, in her address said the establishment of zonal offices in all the six geo-political zones of the country was designed to bring the commission’s activities closer to the contributors and retirees.

Meanwhile, PenCom has said only Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Niger and Jigawa States have fully complied with the scheme and commenced remittances of employees’ contributions into their Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) as at December 31, 2012.

While 21 states in all have enacted laws to enable them kick-start contributory pension scheme, 10 states, including Delta, Ekiti, Kaduna, Kebbi, Kogi, Imo, Oyo, Rivers, Sokoto and Zamfara are partially complying having appointed PFAs but yet to commence remittance of employees’ contributions into RSAs.

Six other states, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Edo, Kano, Nasarawa and Taraba were yet to commence contributory pension, they were yet to appoint PFAs and thus have not commenced remittance of employees’ contributions into their RSAs.

14 other states, Abia, Anambra, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Ebonyi, Enugu, Gombe, Katsina, Kwara, Ondo, Plateau and Yobe states were at various stages of making laws to help them transit to contributory pension, as provided by the pension law.
Adamawa State remains the only state in the federation that is yet to take any positive action towards transiting to contributory pension, the commission said.