THE Lagos State Government under Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has cleared N68.5 billion pension arrears for retirees who retired from the State’s service.
According to media reports, this development was disclosed by the Lagos State Head of Service (HoS), Mr Bode Agoro, on Tuesday in Lagos.
Agoro spoke at a public sensitisation event on the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) for public servants in the State, organised by the Lagos State Pension Commission (LASPEC). The HoS hailed Sanwo-Olu for his continuous efforts to ensure that senior citizens receive their retirement benefits immediately after they exit the service.
He also commended the Governor for placing a premium on the well-being of the public servants, as well as the retirees. He said the CPS, which was passed into law on March 19, 2007, in Lagos State, was to provide a sustainable retirement plan that ensures financial security upon staff retirement from active service.
“Since its introduction, a lot of Government policies have been made to strengthen the Nigerian pension industry, provide security for citizens’ savings, well as protect workers’ retirement benefits. However, all these policies have come with the need to align ourselves, as workers, with the evolvement of the scheme. Knowledge, they say is power, and information is key. Therefore, a man without the right information will no doubt be deformed,” he said.
According to him, the need to avoid misinformation regarding the CPS, led to the sensitisation organised by LASPEC, to disseminate vital information about important updates and changes on the CPS as it affects stakeholders.
The HoS added that the State had continually embarked on data updating exercises, occasioned by linking of National Identification Number (NIN) to all of the existing accounts, be it in the banks, telecommunication service providers and others.
He noted that it was imperative to have the data recaptured with the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) to ease documentation, facilitate processing and smooth pension payments upon retirement.
According to him, for those who just have their service documents regularised, changed locations or names, the exercise was poised to provide them with fresh opportunities to register such changes with their PFAs, accordingly.
He said: “Considering the different developments that public servants might have experienced over the years, this exercise will be made periodic to allow you to register such development with your PFAs. This is to enable updated information that will ease the processing of your retirement benefits by LASPEC as well as the PFAs.
“As partners in progress, our PFAs will be made available at the Adeyemi-Bero Auditorium at Alausa, Ikeja, for four days as scheduled in our circular, to attend to your proper documentation.”
Agoro commended LASPEC for the laudable initiatives and for bringing the PFA's services to the doorsteps of civil servants so they to update their data accordingly. He urged the workers to pay attention to the vital information concerning the pension scheme.