Trustfund Pension Plc has grown its customer’s base to over 500,000, making it one of the largest players in Nigeria’s growing pension industry.
But some of the customers at a forum in Ikeja, Lagos, organised by Trustfund to interact with retirees within its system, want the company to liaise with the industry regulator- National Pension Commission (PENCOM) to see to how pensioners under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) which came into force in 2004 can have means of identification as retirees.
Obafemi Arobadi, Lagos regional manager of Trustfund attributes the growing customers’ base to quality and prompt service delivery. “This is what stands Trustfund out,” he said pointing to regular interactions with retirees and active contributors as one the ways the company makes impact on its customers.
Maha Longe, customer relations manager of Trustfund, spoke in the same manner. “The retiree forum gives the opportunity to receive complaints so that we can promptly resolve them. We also encourage them to update us with changes that may have occurred from the time we held the last one, such as changes in address, next of kin while also obtaining their biometrics,” she said.
Florence Shonubi, one of the customers who retired from the Lagos State House of Assembly in 2011, said retirees under the old pay-as-go system have a means of identification, but this was not the case with those retiring under the contributory pension arrangement.
Shonubi, who lauded the consistency of Trustfund Plc in the Retirees’ Forum over the years, said it was a veritable avenue to share concerns just as she urged other pension fund administrators to borrow the idea.
The retiree who agreed that the CPS was an improvement over the old system that saw senior citizens dying in queues to collect their pensions, said since retiring five years ago, Trustfund has consistently paid her monthly withdrawal between 20 and 24 of every month.
Fatai Ajala, who left service in 2007 from the federal ministry of transport and pioneer customer of Trustfund, also commended prompt payment of his monthly withdrawal by the pension fund administrator. He, however, urged the company to bring in officials of PENCOM in the next edition of the interaction to address issues of general concern in the pension industry.
JOSHUA BASSEY
