Yemisi Izuora.
Federal government pensioners migrated from the Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS) to the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) in 2004, have demanded interest yield from the investment of their accrued benefits with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) by the National Pension Commission (PenCom).
The pensioners who retired under the CPS are making the call under the auspices of Interim Association of Contributory Pension Scheme Pensioners.
President of the association, Comrade Shittu – said since the government moved them from the DBS to the CPS following its establishment in 2004, they have been receiving their pension benefits.
He stated that the federal government, through the CBN and PenCom still owe all categories of contributory pensioners accrued interests on their initial pension entitlements accrued from the old scheme as at June 2004 which were deposited in the CBN as Bonds.
He maintained that the Commission has not communicated to them whether or not, it will pay them the interest yield.
He said: “According to Google Wikipedia “In finance, a bond is an instrument of indebtedness of the bond issuer to the holders. The bond is a debt security, under which the issuer owes the holders a debt (depending on the terms of the bond), is obliged to pay them interest (the coupon) or to repay the principal at a later date, termed the maturity date.
“The Association is fully aware that in all countries where CPS is practiced, all workers involved are duly paid these entitlements at the commencement of the scheme. It is our belief that if these amounts were given to every participant in Nigeria, it would have accrued substantial fortunes as interests in the various financial institutions. We wish to state that retirees under the CPS Scheme have been short-changed. We will commence action in demanding for our due entitlements”, he added.
In a report titled “Introductory Notes to Prsident Buhari by the National Pension Commission (PenCom), the commission stated that delays being experienced in the settlement of accrued benefits of FGN retirees and deceased employees whenever there are delays in the funding of the Retirement Benefits Bond Redemption Fund by the FGN as is the case in 2012, 2014 and 2015.
It also said that the sum of N483.33 billion has been released into the Retirement Benefits Bonds Redemption Fund Account by the FGN, which was invested by the Central Bank of Nigeria and yielded N7.71 billion between 2006 and March 2015.
The Commission however did not state if intent were paid to the pensioners or not.