President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, has urged the federal government to make retirement easy for Nigerian workers, especially now that the country is facing economic challenges.

Mr Ajaero made the plea on Wednesday when he received a delegation from XEM Consulting Limited, a subsidiary of XEM Group, organisers of the maiden pre-retirement summit, scheduled to be held in Abuja from April 24 to April 25.

Eugenia Ndukwe, EM Group CEO, led the visiting team.

Mr Ajaero said a lot had been said about contributory pensions without significant improvement from the regulators.

“Majority of the states have not started keying in, and one begins to wonder (about) the essence of enacting a law. Even when the law criminalised non-participation, no state has been prosecuted, fined or levied,” he said.

Mr Ajaero regretted that pension matters in the country were becoming more of rhetoric rather than action.

Therefore, he urged the federal and state governments to take seriously the issue of workers’ pensions and ensure they enjoy life after retirement.

“Government in this business is not just employers of labour, they are regulators, and if regulators are not doing anything, then there is problem.

“We are the main victims; even when people retire, the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) find it difficult to pay them, thereby making it a difficult long journey to access their money,” Mr Ajaero added.

Ms Ndukwe, a business development expert, said there would be an opportunity at the summit to train prospective retirees on various skills before they retire.

She said the summit was carefully planned to examine the country’s retirement policies, the challenges faced by prospective retirees, and a solution to them before they retire.

Ms Ndukwe also said experts from China, Canada, and some European countries would attend the summit to give their countries’ perspectives on pension reforms.

She said this would be done to find solutions to the challenges faced by retirees in Nigeria.

(NAN)