By Mfonobong Ukpong

The Contributory Pension Bill has been passed into law by the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly. The bill which seeks to ensure that civil servants in the state employ receive his or her retirement benefit as and when due establishes a uniform set of rules and regulations as well as setting standards for the administration and payments of retirement benefits to retirees in both the local government and the state civil service was unanimously adopted by the House members. The bill had generated much concern by civil servants in the state who had since contributed to the scheme.
The development, as believed in many quarters, has put paid to worries by those concerned over the safety of their funds as a legal backing has been given to the scheme. The commencement date was back dated to February 2008 to cover the actual commencement date of the contribution. A public hearing on the bill had been conducted where inputs where gathered from stakeholders drawn from the Civil Service, labour union, trade union, private organizations and the Pension Fund Administrators.
The chairman of the labour and productivity committee of the House, Mr. Bassey Akpan Willie noted that wide consultation was made by his committee to gather the necessary inputs to the bill. In his remarks, the Speaker, Obong Engr. Ignatius Edet expressed the believe that the bill will go a long way in promoting and enhancing the welfare of civil servants and manpower development.
The bill makes provision for the establishment of the state Pension Bureau for the regulation, supervision and effective administration of pension related matters in the public service with membership to be drawn from the office of the Head Civil Service, Ministry of Finance, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Trade Union Congress (TUC), the Ministry of Justice, the Bureau of Labour and Productivity and a financial Institution to be appointed by the state government while the chairman who is to act on a full time capacity is expected to posses adequate professional and cognate experience either in finance and investment related fields, including accounting or pension, management, business administration or Actuarial science.