Over N600bn has so far been contributed by pension fund subscribers under the new National Pension Scheme, which was inaugurated in February, 2005.

Also within the same period, the Federal Government remitted over N97bn as total contributions of its employees, deducted from source.

The Commissioner, Inspectorate Division, National Pension Commission, Dr. Musa Ibrahim, who reeled out the figures in Lagos on Wednesday, described the new pension fund scheme as highly successful.

He disclosed that over four million subscribers had applied to participate in the scheme. The figure, he said, included 2.3million people, who had indicated their interest in the new scheme and members of organisations that had applied to the commission for the permission to continue with their current schemes.

Ibrahim, who spoke at a workshop for sales agents in Lagos, said that the Federal Government was determined to ensure the success of the pension scheme, pointing out, however, that individual contributors had a big role to play to ensure the success of the scheme.

“The uniqueness of the pension scheme is that the responsibility of the operations and management of the scheme has been placed on the workers�, the commissioner said.

According to him, it was the obligation of employees to report any employer who failed to comply with the dictates of the pension reforms.

He said that over N6bn that accrued under the old scheme has been transferred to the new scheme.

Ibrahim, who attributed the inability of the commission to bring defaulters of pension laws to book, however, said that the government would not hesitate to sanction organisations that failed to comply with the directives on pension fund.

He disclosed that the commission was already partnering with regulators in some strategic sectors of the economy to ensure compliance with the pension scheme.

For instance, he said that the commission had discussed with institutions such as the Central Bank of Nigeria, Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Insurance Commission on ways to ensure that operators in all the sectors comply with the new pension scheme.

He also said that the National Accounting Standards Board would, henceforth, not approve the accounts of any defaulting firm as a measure to ensure compliance.

Speaking on the possibility of accessing the contributions of any employee that dies during service, Ibrahim said PenCom had simplified the process. According to him, all that was needed is for the families of the deceased to make claims through PenCom. - Punch