A global management consultancy services firm, McKinsey & Company, has predicted a bright future for the insurance sector in Nigeria and some other African countries, describing Africa as one of the world’s hot regions for insurance penetration.
In a report entitled “Africa’s insurance market is set for takeoff,” released by the global firm on Sunday, the company said it has noted that steady economic growth in most countries combined with a largely underdeveloped insurance sector have positioned the continent as the second-fastest-growing region for insurance globally after Latin America.
The report pointed out that the coronavirus pandemic which had profoundly affected both lives and livelihoods has seen consumers cutting back on discretionary expenditure, including insurance, in the face of income and market volatility.
FG releases N11.8bn pension for MDA retirees, 10 months arrears still outstanding
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By Rosemary Iwunze
The Federal Government, yesterday, released the sum of N11.82 billion for payment of accrued rights for retirees of treasury funded Ministries, Departments & Agencies (MDAs) under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
Accrued rights represent benefits for employees of Treasury Funded MDAs who worked up to June 2004, before the Pension Reform Act that gave birth to the CPS was introduced.
However, Vanguard investigation shows that the amount will cover only two months arrears of January and February 2020. This is because the last payment for accrued rights was for December 2019. In essence, a backlog of ten months arrears is still outstanding.
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The Federal Government has released N11.82bn for payment of accrued rights of retirees of treasury funded Ministries, Departments and Agencies under the Contributory Pension Scheme.
The Head, Corporate Communications Department, National Pension Commission, Peter Aghahowa, disclosed this in a mail sent to our correspondent on Wednesday.
He stated, “The sum of N11.82bn has been released by the Federal Government for payment of accrued rights.
“Accrued rights represent benefits for employees of treasury funded MDAs who worked up to June 2004, when the Pension Reform Act was introduced.
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“The commission appreciates the effort of the Federal Government at ensuring that the accrued rights arrears are cleared.”
For decades, pension and other social benefit matters have received significant attention in many countries.
A lot of reforms and decisions are being taken to address the challenges associated with the existing pensions leading to changes in the ways pension assets and benefits were managed and distributed to the target groups, especially retirees and ‘senior citizens’.
In Nigeria, it has been a staggered history of pension since 1951, through the public sector pension scheme, the establishment of National Provident Fund (NPF) of 1961, the Pension Decrees nos.102 and 103 of 1979 and the National Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) Decree no.73 of 1993.
However, many retirees in Nigeria still go through unnecessary difficulties before accessing retirement benefits or their monthly entitlements due largely to the management or administration of the funds they have contributed over their years of service.