Task labour unions to focus more on fighting for workers welfare
Aminah Salako – Adekunle
Some Civil Servants in Kwara State want concerned authorities to amend the Pension Reform Act, 2014 for workers to access more than 25% of their Retirement Savings for residential mortgage under the Contributory Pension Scheme.
The workers said the demand was as a result of the inflation rate and high cost of living in the country.
The Contributory Pension Scheme was established in 2014 to provide regular monthly stipends for Nigerian workers upon retirement. The Scheme however, makes provision for workers to access part of their pension savings, according to stipulated guidelines.
In the last few months, there has been an upsurge in the number of workers applying for the withdrawal of their 25% retirement savings purposely for mortgage, as they argued that inflation rate in the country has crushed the value of money.
A Lecturer at the Department of Mass Communication, Al-Hikmah University Ilorin, Kwara State, Mr. Musa Sule agitated for an amendment of the Pension Act to enable workers have access to not less than 50% of their Retirement Savings.
Mr. Sule also criticized the conditions attached to withdrawal of some percentage of the savings.
“In Nigeria, the problem is not about policies, the problem is how it’s being implemented. The Contributory Pension Scheme is not bad but we have to acknowledge the fact that there are some aspects of it that have been criticized by analysts.
One of them is the condition that to actually withdraw any money, you have to have attained the age of 50 and should have been jobless for Four (4) years which is very detrimental and challenging to civil servants especially in an era of this economic challenges,” he emphasized.
He tasked labour unions to focus more on fighting for workers welfare, as he positioned that salary increment is not the solution to present economic challenges but rather, government’s ability to improve the value of Naira.
A visit to one of the Pension Fund Administrator in Ilorin, shows that in recent time, the number of federal workers that are accessing the 25% from their retirement savings has increased significantly.
One of the Pension administrator officials who preferred anonymity confirmed that there is likelihood for more workers to process the fund.
A cross section of Federal Workers who spoke with Radio Nigeria said the high cost of living as a result of subsidy removal and devaluation of Naira, necessitated survival actions including accessing some portions of their Retirement Savings.
“The situation whereby the Federal Government keep borrowing from the Pension fund is disturbing, why can’t we the contributors of such money have more access to a reasonable amount of money from our savings while still active, to invest and have meaningful life, than waiting for when God’s knows when – retirement,” Mr. Akorede argued.
“You discover that a good percentage of civil servants don’t live to collect this money, like my mother in – law and her friend they died few months to their retirement, had it been they have access to their Retirement Savings, they wouldn’t have lived in limbo”, Mrs. Sarumi asserted.
The workers also, want government to take urgent steps to pay all outstanding arrears and other entitlements, with the hope that it would go a long way to relieve them of the present economic challenges.
