Joe Ajaero, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has called upon the federal government to make the retirement age for Nigerian workers easy, particularly in light of the country’s current economic difficulties.
Mr Ajaero made this call on Wednesday during a meeting with a delegation from XEM Consulting Limited, a subsidiary of XEM Group, which is organizing the inaugural pre-retirement summit scheduled to take place in Abuja from April 24 to April 25.
The visiting team was led by Eugenia Ndukwe, CEO of EM Group. Mr Ajaero expressed concerns that despite discussions surrounding contributory pensions, there has been little improvement from the regulators.
“Majority of the states have not started keying in, and one begins to wonder (about) the essence of enacting a law. Even when the law criminalised non-participation, no state has been prosecuted, fined or levied,” he said.
Mr Ajaero regretted that pension matters in the country were becoming more of rhetoric rather than action.
Read Also:
Therefore, he urged the federal and state governments to take seriously the issue of workers’ pensions and ensure they enjoy life after retirement.
“Government in this business is not just employers of labour, they are regulators, and if regulators are not doing anything, then there is problem.
“We are the main victims; even when people retire, the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) find it difficult to pay them, thereby making it a difficult long journey to access their money,” Mr Ajaero added.
Ms Ndukwe, a business development expert, said there would be an opportunity at the summit to train prospective retirees on various skills before they retire.
She said the summit was carefully planned to examine the country’s retirement policies, the challenges faced by prospective retirees, and a solution to them before they retire.
Ms Ndukwe also said experts from China, Canada, and some European countries would attend the summit to give their countries’ perspectives on pension reforms.
She said this would be done to find solutions to the challenges faced by retirees in Nigeria.
