As Impunity Reigns At PenCom

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

The Pension Reform Act (PRA), which established the National Pension Commission (PenCom), was enacted by the National Assembly (NASS) in 2004 to create a body that would regulate, supervise and ensure the effective administration of pension matters. Before then, pension schemes in the country were bedeviled by many problems, including the fact that the public service operated an unfunded Defined Benefits Scheme. Though the payment of retirement benefits was budgeted annually, most times there were no funds to execute the scheme.

The situation was even worse in the private sector where many employees were not covered by the pension schemes put in place by their employers, and even where they were covered, many of the schemes were not funded.

So, the PRA was hailed as pragmatic, just like PenCom, the regulatory body that would formulate, direct and oversee the overall policy on pension matters by establishing standards, rules and regulations for the management of pension funds.

But what the PRA did not envisage in setting up PenCom was the establishment of a regulatory agency that would see itself as being above the law or which would go out of its way to undermine the same organisations it was set up to nurse to good health.
Unfortunately, that seems to be the situation now.

PenCom has become a law unto itself. Its management is contemptuous of court judgments and treats well-meaning advice from constituted authorities with levity.

In PenCom, bias against certain business interests trumps equity and justice. That is a dangerous value proposition for a regulator in such a critical industry.

The story of the regulator-engineered crisis that has engulfed an otherwise frontline Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) is pathetic. It is a classic illustration of the ‘might is right’ philosophy of those who think they control the levers of power in Nigeria.

The contrived crisis which has hobbled First Guarantee Pensions Limited (FGPL) for over five years is orchestrated by PenCom headed by Chinelo Anohu-Amazu.

I commented on this matter a few weeks ago, hoping that somehow the shenanigans will stop.
But the impunity continues and I am appalled and horrorstruck by the propensity of a government agency to flagrantly disobey court orders.

To recap, FGPL is a Nigerian company incorporated in 2004 and licensed as a PFA in 2006, with a total 37 shareholders.
Despite the teething problems, the management turned around the fortunes of the company in 2010 and subsequently paid dividends, a feat PenCom acknowledged.