The Nigeria Police Pensions Limited has proposed an increase in the Federal Government’s pension contribution for police personnel from 10 per cent to 20 per cent.
It said the current contribution structure is inadequate to provide decent retirement benefits for officers after service.
The Acting Managing Director of NPF Pensions Limited, Muhammad Dutse, disclosed this on Wednesday during a press conference in Abuja, where the company unveiled a digital platform designed to improve pension service delivery to police personnel nationwide.
Dutse said the proposal had already been forwarded to President Bola Tinubu through the National Pension Commission as part of ongoing efforts to address the challenge of low pensions among retired police officers.
“The proposition given to Mr President is to ensure that at least for police officers, the monthly contribution would be increased by the Federal Government from 10 to 20 per cent while they will still contribute eight per cent, making a total of 28 per cent,” he said.
Dutse’s remarks came amid growing concerns over the welfare of retired police personnel.
The PUNCH earlier reported that retired officers, under the aegis of the Police Retired Officers Forum of Nigeria, urged President Bola Tinubu to sign the Police Exit Bill into law, arguing that existing pension and gratuity payments were too meagre to support them in retirement.
According to Dutse, the current proposal became necessary after successive reviews showed that existing contribution levels were insufficient to guarantee adequate pensions for retirees.
He explained that when the Contributory Pension Scheme was introduced, both employers and employees contributed 7.5 per cent each, based on projections that the arrangement would be enough to sustain workers in retirement.
He added that the enactment of the Pension Reform Act 2014 increased contributions to 10 per cent by employers and eight per cent by employees following concerns over the adequacy of pension benefits.
“Ten years later, we realised that that is also not adequate. And that is what is affecting our retirees today,” Dutse said.
He noted that the Pension Reform Act was currently undergoing another review and expressed optimism that the process would result in stronger measures to improve retirement benefits.
According to him, increasing the government’s contribution to 20 per cent would significantly boost the Retirement Savings Account balances of police personnel and reduce the need for pension augmentation by the government after retirement.
“That way, we believe in the near future, five to seven years, that their RSA will be able to take care of their pension needs without having to go to the government to augment what they are receiving,” he said.
Dutse said the challenge of inadequate pensions extended beyond the police, noting that workers across the public sector had continued to raise concerns over retirement benefits.
“Frankly speaking, the issue of low pension is not only affecting police officers. Generally, civil servants are complaining. I remember university professors have been complaining,” he said.
He added that the Federal Government was exploring measures that would enable university professors to retire with benefits equivalent to their salaries while still being funded through their Retirement Savings Accounts.
“And that’s exactly what we are working on for police officers,” he added.
Meanwhile, NPF Pensions unveiled an interactive virtual assistant platform aimed at providing police personnel with easier access to pension services and information.
Dutse said the initiative was introduced to address the logistical challenges associated with serving police personnel deployed across the country.
“Our clients are spread all over the country. Every nook and cranny of this country, you’ll find a policeman. Delivering services to that point has proven to be very difficult for us,” he said.
According to him, about 30,000 police personnel had already enrolled on the platform before its official launch.
“We already have almost 30,000 policemen enrolled on the platform before today, and I do believe that this number will continue to grow astronomically,” he said.
He expressed optimism that all police personnel nationwide would be enrolled on the platform within the next two to three months.
“The product is ready. If we can have all the police officers nationwide enrolled within a span of two to three months, we will be very happy with that,” he added.
The acting managing director said the platform would enable contributors to instantly check their RSA balances, download account statements, monitor fund performance, view daily unit prices and access other pension-related services.
He further stated that the platform had been equipped with security features to prevent unauthorised access and would operate round the clock.
Dutse added that NPF Pensions was also developing USSD services to enable personnel without smartphones to access pension services, while continuing to provide quarterly RSA statements in compliance with regulatory requirements.
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