Steve Unegbu, Umuahia
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has commended the Governor of Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti, for his commitment to setup an effective and seamless pension scheme that will outlive his tenure as the State Governor.
PENCOM gave the commendation on Tuesday, 3rd December, at the Umuehim Nvosi country home of the Governor when the DG of PenCom, Ms. Omolola Bridget-Oloworaran led some top officials of the Commission on a working visit to the Governor.
Recall that the Governor recently assented to the Abia State Reform Pension law passed by the Abia State House of Assembly.
Speaking during the visit, Ms. Bridget-Oloworaran commended Governor for clearing backlog of pension arrears that he met on assumption of office and signing the Abia State reform Pension law 2024 passed by the State House of Assembly.
In her words “I am happy with the steps that Abia State has taken in passing the State Pension Reform Law 2024.
” Your Excellency, I want to thank you for these great steps, signing the law and your commitment to wanting the Contributory Pension Scheme to stay not just during your tenure but long after you have gone.
“Abia State is poised to become a mother of sustainable development for employee’s welfare and I believe setting an example across the whole South East because as at today, there is no State in the South East that is fully compliant under the Contributory Pension Scheme. If Abia State moves fast, you will be able to set an example across the whole of the South East region and I dare say across the country in terms of some of the controls that you have put in place to ensure that this scheme not only survives your own tenure but endures in future ones.
Continuing she said that the Abia State pension Law was thoroughly worked on. She pointed out some areas that the State Government needed to look into towards establishing an effective and seamless pension scheme among which are employees Biometric verification, working with Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to open or generate codes for employers, constituting the Pension Board, remittance of contributions to the Contributory Pension Scheme and including Pensioners in Health Insurance among others.
Responding, Governor Otti thanked the PenCOM DG and her team for coming and for their positive words and comments about his administration including the recently signed pension laws.
“We are also glad that the law we passed last month received a very kind commendation from you. We are not experts in this, we just sit back and ask ourselves, what can we do for this people that may not be able to do so much for themselves at this time, who have also spent the active years of their lives working for the State,” the Governor stated.
Talking about the pensioners, the Governor said, “When we came in, we found that some of them were being owed for so many years, up to 2014.
” We felt that we needed to sit down with them, find a way to take it out completely. What we have done from this year is to ensure that close to 12,500 pensioners in the State receive 100% of their pensions every month”
Speaking further, the Governor said, “We think that it is the right way to go. To setup a system where whether we are in power or not in power, they can be sure that their monthly stipend comes regularly. Whatever it is, that it will come and they can live their normal lives.
“We are actually at the verge of setting up the board but needed to ensure that everything is in order. He assured that the Government will heed to the advice on the management of the funds, both from the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) and Pension fund Custodians (PFCs) as well as keep to the pension law and work on all points raised to ensure a seamless system for the State.
On health Insurance, Governor Otti said, “Interestingly, we setup an Abia Health Insurance Agency which has started working and we started with civil servants. Just last month, I set aside 500 million as marching fund for civil servants into the Abia State Health Insurance Agency.
“We will be thinking on how to ensure that the pensioners can benefit from it, maybe we have to increase the funds”.
The Governor said that availability and accessibility were key in implementing health insurance, noting that if Primary, Secondary and Tertiary healthcare systems are not working, no matter how much insurance or free healthcare you provide to attend to the healthcare needs of the people, nothing will work.
Governor Otti asked the Pencom DG and her team to come back again and again to provide the needed guidance to the Government’s team towards creating a perfect pension scheme for the State as there was no need reinventing the wheel.
