Some pension stakeholders have called on the National Pension Commission (PenCom) to accelerate review of the Pension Reform Act (PRA) for enhanced lump sum for retirees.
They spoke in an interview yesterday in Abuja.
Mr Simon Uzor, a civil servant, said that pensioners should be able to access all their money because they worked for it.
“I have dedicated my life in the civil service and I will be retiring next year.
“I have a business I want to start when I finally retire but I may not be able to start with the little lump sum I will be given.
“If am given small amount I will not even know how I spend it and I will be back to square one,” Uzor said.
Another civil servants, Mrs Marie Tunde, said that the money should be given to retirees while they were still alive.
“No one knows when God will call us back, and our Next of Kin will now enjoy what we suffered for.
“So many of our colleagues have died without enjoying the fruit of their labor, may our own not end like them, the government needs to look at this critically,” she said.
A retiree, Mr Ojo Ibrahim, said that the money he was given after retirement vanished without investing it in anything.
“After paying for my childrens school fees, and paying for house rent for two years the money left was little. I just used it for our upkeep because it was not enough to start any business.
“If given an option I would have taken it all to start a business for myself and my wife.
“I may have relocated back to my home town to start farming,” he said.
Another retiree, Mr Usman Musa, said that the country’s pension scheme was a good one, but needs to be reviewed to the current situation of the country.
Musa said that pension took care of retirees at old age.
“That is the stage we need to rest more,” he said.
He said that most civil servants earned poor salaries and could hardly achieve anything while in service.
He said that only civil servants with huge salary enjoyed their retirement because they got huge benefits.
“I think all Federal Government agencies should be paid equally, as this will help.
“If 50 per cent of our money is giving to us, we will invest or start a business,” Musa said.
However, Mr Sani Mustapha, the Chairman of the Contributory Pension and Happy Retirement Advocacy (COPEHRA), said that the lump sum had no fixed rate.
Sani said that it was determined by factors like the retiree’s total RSA balance, life expectancy and prevailing guidelines issued by PenCom.
“The objective is to ensure that while retirees meet immediate financial needs at retirement, they also maintain a steady income throughout their lifetime,” he said.
Meanwhile, findings revealed the PRA provided clear provisions for the withdrawal of lump sum benefits by contributors under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) upon attaining the retirement age.
The act stipulates that a contributor who retires in accordance with the terms and conditions of service is entitled to access a portion of the balance in his or her Retirement Savings Account (RSA).
The act is implemented and supervised by the National Pension Commission (PenCom).
According to the act, under the CPS, retirees may withdraw a lump sum from their RSA.
It, however, said that the amount left after such withdrawal should be sufficient to fund a programmed withdrawal or annuity that would pay a monthly pension for life.