CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
Of The Study
The greatest challenge
to government worldwide remains the issue relating to pension fund management.
A financial analyst called Alexandra Forbes argues “Pension Management, world
over, has become an increasingly great concern to most government and countries
of the world”.
And coming to Nigeria,
the country was guided by a number of pension regimes prior to the promulgation
of the pension Act 2004, pension schemes in Nigeria had been bedeviled with
many pitfalls. The public service operated an unfounded defined benefit schemes
and the payment of retirement benefits were budgeted annually. The annual
budgetary allocation for pension was often one of the most vulnerable items in
budget implementation in even where budgetary provisions were made, inadequate
and untimely release of fund resulted in delays and accumulation of arrears of
payment of pension rights. It is then obvious that, the defined benefit scheme
could not be sustained.
In the private sector
on the other hand, many employees were not covered by the pension scheme put in
place by their employers and many other schemes were not funded. Besides, where
the schemes were funded, the management of the pension funds was full of
malpractices between the fund management and the trustees of the pension board.
The scenario agitated a
re-think of pension administration in Nigeria by the then President Olusegun
Obasanjo`s administration, accordingly, the administration initiated a pension
reform in order to address, eliminate and eradicate the problems associated with
pension reform act 2004.
Good times come
and go, retirement is definite, and the question therefore is “Can people still
live a good- life implementation of budgeted income to pensioners, a
non-effective strategy for pension administration is seemingly a growing
problem in Nigerian economy. Some retirees are forced to continue to work
throughout their life not out of choice but for lack of means of sustenance at
old age. They are therefore forced to go in search of menial jobs to make ends
meet, since they are not even sure of getting their pensions.
Apart from the stress
associated with working at old age, how relevant can an individual be at age 70
or 80 in the face of ever changing knowledge brought about by advancement in
technology? Besides, of what use is life without rest at old age? Even where
one is willing and able to continue working, the opportunity for the elderly to
continue working is declining. However,
it is against this backgrounds that the researcher wishes to develop effective
strategy for pension administration in the Nigeria public sector.
1.2
Statement Of The Problem
First comes the layoffs
then pay cuts finally a delay in the payments of benefits due to poor policy
formulation and implementation, incorrect record keeping and inadequate
accountability of public funds. The non-implementation of budgeted income to
pensioners, delay in the payment and denial of pension
accrued to pensioners leading to pensioners protesting over non-payment of
pensions and non-compliance with ethics of public financial management.
1.3 Objectives
Of The Study
The
aims and objectives of the study are to ;-
- To proffer solutions to the problem that brings about a non-effective and efficient management in pension administration.
- To identify measures and steps dealing with the issues of poor implementation of budgeted income to pensioners.
- To examine the quality of personnel in various pension boards.
- To ascertain whether the administration of pension funds are done judiciously.
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