Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, has said billions of naira are frequently diverted by corrupt pension managers.
He stated this at a two-day national summit tagged: “Eradication of Pension Fraud in Nigeria.”
Bawa said the EFCC as the coordinating agency for the enforcement of all economic and financial crimes laws, is conversant with the rot in the pension sector.
According to him, “We have investigated and documented hundreds of billions of naira lost to fraud in the pension industry. However, beyond the money, is also the unquantifiable loss of dignity in the retiree who has to grovel and beg (and even die in some instances) in order to access his contributions. It is the shame of a nation that those who have contributed their most productive years to us in various capacities have to go through hell to live in retirement.
“We worry about the quality of regulation, the fidelity of pension managers and the inefficiency in the management of pension assets which have grave consequences for the national economy, not to talk of the perception of Nigeria as a country where anything criminal is possible,” he lamented.
Also speaking, the secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, described pension fraud as heinous, insensitive and condemnable. He commended the synergy among the stakeholders, which, he said, will permit the analysis of the causes of pension fraud and the measures to check them.
He said the government was conscious of its responsibility in the pension sector and had resolved to deal with criminal acts of pension fraud in all ramifications.
