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| Deputy Leader of the House, Hon. Leo Ogor |
by: Onwuka Nzeshi
The House of Representatives Thursday passed for second
reading, a bill for an Act to repeal the Pension Reform Act of 2004, and enact
the Pension Reform Act of 2013.
Deputy Leader of the House, Hon. Leo Ogor, who moved the
motion for the second reading of the bill said huge funds belonging to pensioners had been carted away
through fraudulent means due to lapses
in the existing law.
The new enactment,
Ogor said, would give more powers to the
National Pension Commission (PENCOM) to set new guidelines and bring pension management in conformity with present day realities in Nigeria.
In the course of debates on the general principles of the
bill, the lawmakers agreed that the existing
Act had lots of loopholes that
gave room for fraud in the pension management system.
They also argued that
the Pensions Department in the office of the Head of Civil Service of the
Federation was running a parallel
system to the National Pension
Commission and that the new enactment
would harmonise the management of
pension and reduce corruption in the
system.
The bill provides among other things, an enhanced coverage
and informal sector participation in the Contributory Pensions Scheme.
It provides that the mandatory coverage of the CPS in the
private sector should be lowered from the current mark of organisations with
five employees to organisations with three employees and above. The minimum
number of employees has been reduced in
order to capture a wider number of employees in the informal sector and
leverage on Small and Medium Scale Enterprises.
This would also include partnerships and micro enterprises
that normally have less than five employees.
The new amendment also provides for the utilisation of
pension funds for national development. The law envisages that the Pension
Reform Act should facilitate the optimal utilisation of the pool of funds
generated by the CPS towards national development. Accordingly, provisions have
been inserted in the proposed bill such that the sphere of permissible
investment would be expanded to accommodate initiatives for national
development, such as investment in the real sector, including infrastructure
and housing development while at the same time ensuring the safety of pension
fund assets.
The bill has been
referred to the House Committee on Pension Matters for further
legislative work.
Meanwhile, the House
has resolved to push for an upward
review in the monetary jurisdiction of
magistrate courts in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to a minimum of N10 million from its current level
of N 250,000.00.
The resolution followed
a motion sponsored on the matter by Hon. Toby
Okechukwu(PDP/Enugu) on the matter.
Okechukwu had in the said motion, urged the Chief Justice of
the FCT to recommend to the Minister of
the FCT an increase in the jurisdiction specifically in line with section 17 of
the District Court Laws of Northern Nigeria.
Okechukwu said the action
if taken, would enhance the dispensation of justice, as the current monetary jurisdiction of
N250,000 introduced since 2007 was no
longer realistic.
According to the lawmaker, such increment would attract the
patronage of senior lawyers who hitherto avoided the district courts.
“This would enhance the quality of deliberations and
judgements obtained at the magistrate courts,” he stated.
Chairman, House
Committee on Justice, Hon. Ali
Ahmad, explained that the move was not
intended to expand the legal jurisdiction of the courts, but to
rather enhance case management in the courts, as well as decongest the High Courts.
The House has therefore
mandated its Committee on
Legislative Compliance to ensure full
compliance with the resolution.
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