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By Adedapo Adesanya
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has clarified that no official under its employment collects up to N1 million as salary as alleged.
The clarification followed a report claiming that the least paid PenCom employee earns a salary of N3 million per month.
According to the company, “it has become necessary to set the record straight in the interest of the Nigerian public.”
In a press release seen by Business Post, PenCom disregarded the source of information, adding that, “The public is invited to note that the claim is false. The highest-paid official of the commission earns less than N1 million a month. It is, therefore, completely illogical and improbable that the least paid will earn a monthly salary of N3 million.”
According to the pension industry regulator, the news report has fueled all sorts of false allegations and unfair insinuations.
“We understand that there is an element of mischief and possible blackmail on the Commission’s compensation package. From our understanding, it appears someone calculated all staff costs, including training, staff exit benefit scheme, and employer’s pension contribution, and divided the total by the number of the commission’s employees and concluded that the least paid employee is on a monthly salary of N3 million. There is a clear difference between staff cost and staff salaries,” the statement said.
It clarified that since the inception of the commission in 2004, the federal government mandated the board to adopt an employee compensation policy that favourably compares to comparator government bodies in the financial services sector, such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Section 25(2)(b) of the Pension Reform Act 2014 also empowers the Board of the Commission to fix the remuneration, allowances, and benefits of the employees.
It advised that the Presidential Committee on the Consolidation of Emoluments in the Public Sector, headed by the late Chief Ernest Shonekan, former Head of the Interim National Government, made some recommendations that guide the PenCom Board in its compensation review exercises.
One recommendation is that “the pay structure of self-funded agencies should be benchmarked with their private sector comparators to ensure relativity in such agencies and attract and retain high-calibre professionals.”
The Shonekan Committee, which former President Olusegun Obasanjo set up in 2005, also recommended that the pay structure of regulatory agencies should be benchmarked against sectors they monitor to avoid regulatory capture and that an annual increase in pay should be undertaken to account for inflation/cost of living adjustment and establishments may strive to attain 50th percentile and above their comparators in the private sector.
PenCom noted that it had made this clear in a recent submission to the House of Representatives Committee on Finance over the compensation package of the Commission.
“We also stated that the last compensation package review was done in 2017 with the approval of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF). No review has been done in the last five years, and this has affected the agency’s ability to attract, hire and retain staff with competitive skills.”
“The public is implored to ignore the false and mischievous information on the staff compensation package. The Commission has nothing to hide and will continue to run a transparent and accountable system,” it hammered.
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Adedapo Adesanya is a journalist, polymath, and connoisseur of everything art. When he is not writing, he has his nose buried in one of the many books or articles he has bookmarked or simply listening to good music with a bottle of beer or wine. He supports the greatest club in the world, Manchester United F.C.
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National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the number of Distribution Companies (DisCos) customers in Nigeria in Q1 and Q2 of 2022 stood at 10.63 million and 10.81 million, respectively.
This is according to the Nigeria Electricity Report for Q1 and Q2 2022 released by the NBS on Tuesday. The report focused on energy bills, revenue generated and customers by DISCOS under the reviewed period.
According to the report, the total number of customers for the period under review indicates a rise of 1.67 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis.
The report said on a year-on-year basis, the number of customers in Q1 2022 declined by 1.36 per cent from Q1 2021 at 10.78 million. Similarly, the number of customers declined in Q2 2022 by 2.27 per cent from Q2 2021 at 11.06 million.
The report said the number of metered customers stood at 4.79 million in Q1 2022 and 4.96 million in Q2 2022, indicating a 3.53 per cent increase on a quarter-on-quarter basis.
“However, on a year-on-year basis, there were growth rates of 10.71 per cent and 9.54 per cent in Q1 and Q2 2022, respectively, when compared to 4.33 million customers recorded in Q1 2021 and 4.53 million in Q2 2021,” it stated.
The report explained that estimated billing customers stood at 5.84 million in Q1 2022 and 5.85 million in Q2 2022, showing an increase of 0.14 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis.
“On a year-on-year basis, estimated billing customers declined by 9.45 per cent in Q1 2022, and 10.45 per cent in Q2 2022, when compared to 6.45 million in Q1 2021 and 6.53 million in Q2 2021,” it added.
The report showed that electricity supply in Q1 2022 stood at 5,956 (Gwh) and 5,227 (Gwh) in Q2 2022, showing a decline of 12.23 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis.
Nevertheless, according to the report, on a year-on-year basis, electricity supply declined compared to 6,172.19 (Gwh) and 5,882.57 (Gwh) reported in Q1 2021 and Q2 2021, respectively, revealing that revenue generation by the DISCOs stood at 204.74 billion in Q1 2022 and 188.41 billion in Q2 2022.
According to the report, this indicates a 7.97 per cent decline on a quarter-on-quarter basis, stressing that on a year-on-year basis, revenue collected rose by 11.42 per cent and 1.71 per cent, respectively, from 183.74 billion in Q1 2021 and 185.24 billion in Q2 2021.
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President Muhammadu Buhari will, on Friday, September 23, 2022, launch Nigeria’s Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF) for Sustainable Development on the margins of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA77) in New York.
This was disclosed by Mr Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President, Media and Publicity, in a statement.
Proposed within the broader Addis Ababa Action Agenda, the INFF is a planning and delivery tool to finance sustainable development at the national level.
The integrated financing framework helps policymakers lay out a strategy to increase investments for sustainable development, manage financial and non-financial risks, and achieve sustainable development priorities. While a country’s national development plan spells out what needs to be financed, the INFF shows how it will be financed and implemented.
For Nigeria, the INFF is also expected to help in the recovery from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as help address the lack of an integrated approach to financing SDGs, which has been a key challenge to meeting the financing requirement, estimated at $100 billion over the next 10 years.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development presents an ambitious, complex and interconnected vision that countries around the world have committed to working towards. Realizing this vision will require the mobilisation of a diverse range of public and private resources.
The INFF is a tool to help countries strengthen planning processes and overcome existing impediments to financing sustainable development at the national level.
It helps governments and their partners to build more integrated approaches to financing that strengthen the alignment between public and private investments and longer-term sustainable development objectives and build greater coherency across the governance of public and private financing policies.
Nigeria committed to being a champion of INFF and officially kicked off the design process as an INFF pioneer country in 2020.
To steer the implementation process, Nigeria set up the INFF Steering Committee chaired by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning (MFBNP), represented by the Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, the Director General of the Budget Office of the Federation, the Director General of the Debt Management Office, and the Statistician-General of the National Bureau of Statistics.
Others are the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, the UN Resident Coordinator, Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme, the Head of Development Cooperation of the European Union mission, the Resident Representative of the International Monetary Fund, the Country Director for the World Bank, and the Co-Chair of the Private Sector Advisory Group.
Expected at the launch are some Heads of Government, the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Mrs Amina J. Mohammed and representatives from countries and international organisations.
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The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) says it has arrested 19 suspects over their alleged involvement in oil theft and illegal dealings in petroleum products.
According to reports, Nigeria loses about 400,000 barrels of crude oil to theft daily, which amounts to about $40 million. This does not contribute to Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) and also doesn’t generate any revenue for the nation.
The Rivers State Commandant of NSCDC, Mr Michael Ogar, who decried the defiance of oil thieves and illegal oil bunkerers, noted that in spite of the continuous sensitisation and relentless war against economic sabotage in the nation, oil thieves have blatantly refused to turn a new leaf.
Mr Ogar maintained that sequel to the reconstitution of a new Antivandal Team of the Command, the Marine and land Patrol operatives have commenced full operations with a renewed vigour, professionalism and tactics in waging war against the menace of vandalism of oil pipelines and oil theft in Rivers State.
He stated that the 19 suspects were arrested in different locations within the state, assuring that they will all be charged to court, while the Command would do everything possible to unravel, chase and apprehend their sponsors to serve as deterrents to others.
“As directed by the NSCDC Commandant General, Dr Ahmed Abubakar Audi, a marching order was given to the marine and land operatives to massively arrest pipeline vandals and illegal oil dealers in the state and this has enhanced our doggedness in the series of arrests made by the command.
“The Marine and land Patrol team arrested 19 suspects at different locations in the State; four Suspects named: Peter Udo ‘M’ 20years, Benjamin God’s power ‘M’ 16years, God’s gift Nicholas ‘M’ 19years and Goodness Sunday ‘M’ aged 19year were arrested with one wooden boat and a 40 HP outboard engine along Bakana River.
“In addition, three suspects named: Jacob Fewu ‘M’ 23years, George George ‘M’ 20years and Stanley Bruce ‘M’ 20years were arrested with one wooden boat laden with 10,000 litres of illegally refined Automotive Gas Oil, a 40 HP outboard engine used for propelling the boat.
“The Marine team, in an all-night tactical operation, arrested two additional suspects named: Ade Monday, 27 years and Abiola Gift, 29 years, with one wooden boat, 25 drums of illegal refined AGO and one 15 HP outboard engine.
“Following a tip-off, the antivandal unit also uncovered a building used as a dump site for storing locally refined AGO along Cornerstone junction in Ogbogoro, Obio Akpo Local Government Area. We discovered an underground Tanker containing unquantified litres of locally refined AGO, a Plastic Tank containing about 3,500 litres of AGO and a Pumping Machine. The entire compound is now under seal and manned by our personnel while the Command would continue to chase the culprits till they are arrested and prosecuted accordingly.
The NSCDC boss in Rivers State further said that the Command would approach the court with an application for forfeitures of both the contents and the vehicles, and the proceeds would be remitted into the federal government coffers.
”Let me reiterate our commitment to the war against oil theft and illegal dealings in petroleum products in Rivers State. The perpetrators should either relocate or risk facing the full wrath of the law,” he stated.
Oil theft in Nigeria has continued to grow, despite governments’ efforts to clamp down on illegal activities.
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