The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has given the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) Pensions Limited, a Pension Fund Administrator, total approval to function and manage pensions of more than 300, 000 officers as well as men.
PenCom Head, Surveillance Department, YakubuDatti made this known to the public.
He reiterated that the personnel of the Nigeria Police are still under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) by virtue of Section 1 of the Pension Reform Act 2004 and as amended in the Pension Reform Act 2014.
Head, Police Pension Department, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ibrahim Mohammed, said the police pension PFA has started operations.
He said the police agitated for their own PFA because they have had issues of Next-of-Kin (NOK) waiting for two to three years without getting their death benefits among others.
He said: “Police can now take their own destiny into their hands. Issue of NOK without getting the death benefits of their loved ones and other issues will be looked into. We know our problem’s peculiarity and how to attend to it.
“We are excited that PenCom has granted the PFA license to operate because it will allow us to be able to deal with our pensions internally.”
PenCom Acting Director-General, Mrs Chinelo Anohu-Amazu had earlier explained that the commission exercised its statutory powers and granted the NPF PFA approval-in-principle to allow the police establish their PFA to manage their pension assets.
According to her, this is in line with the recommendations of the Oransanye Committee, which advised that with the exception of the military, which was granted exemption, no other Federal Government institution or force should be exempted from the scheme.
She said the NPF Pensions was borne out of government’s refusal to allow members of the Nigeria Police pull out of the scheme and the directive that they remain in the CPS and seek administrative solutions to their grievances within the framework of the pension law.
She said in compliance with this directive, police authorities incorporated a limited liability company, the NPF Pensions Limited, which has been licensed to operate as a PFA.
She noted that in order to ensure smooth commencement of the NPF Pensions, the commission developed an operational framework that would guide the reassignment of Personal Identification Numbers and transfer of records of all the police contributors to the NPF Pensions Limited, which would be spread over an 18-month period.
The Police have over N305 billion pension savings with existing PFAs out of the N4.3 trillion pension funds.
