Abuja, Nov. 11, 2023: The acting General Manager of Trustfund Pensions Ltd., Mr Uche Ihechere, has underscored the need for adequate awareness creation on pension remittances and operations in order to achieve meaningful growth in the scheme.
Ihechere stated this at a news conference on Friday in Abuja where he said that awareness creation about pension operations would enable contributors to know proper ways to engage pension managers and what to do to avoid hitches in remittances.
Ihechere said: “There are things our customers must do on their own to remain engaged, monitor their salaries deducted for pension purposes and make a case for their employers to remit.
“Pension Funds Administrators (PFAs) routinely visit employers of labour to present cases of unremitted deductions and we write in accordance with our regulations for them to also remit.
“I will encourage everyone registered under this scheme to remain engaged. It is about our collective future and once we see that our deductions are not being remitted by our employers, we should take it up.
“It is the duty of the workers to alert the PFAs so that we can either make the move to rectify it or approach National Pension Commission (NPC). These efforts yield dividends from time to time.
“Almost on a monthly basis, we see remittances accrued from follow-ups, either from the consultants employed by NPC or our officers who are monitoring remittances.”
According to him, NPC has retained consultants who go from one employer to the other to tackle issues about unremitted deductions.
He said that the process could be more efficient if the workers whose contributions were not remitted also alerted pension managers to enable the commission to provide sustainable solutions.
Ihechere said that his organisation had achieved a major milestone in the continued implementation of its 2023-2025 Strategic Plan within its 10 months of operation.
“Under the pension reform act, every employer is mandated to deduct and remit every month and the timeline for this is encapsulated in that law.
“Those employers deducting remittances and not remitting are operating above the law. Once we get this, it is to take it up and they are going to pay.
“We are pleased to announce that our total Assets Under Management (AUM) have breached the operationally significant figure of One Trillion Naira.
“This remarkable feat buttresses our commitment to excellence, unwavering dedication to our customers and relentless pursuit of their financial prosperity.
“Reaching this AUM milestone is a testament to our unwavering dedication to delivering outstanding performance and our relentless pursuit of post-retirement wellness for our customers,” he said.
The acting general manager reiterated his organisation’s resolve to build on such feats in terms of financial innovations and strive to set new benchmarks in the pension industry.
