2007, an aunt received a call from an old friend in London. They had worked together as nurses in London but lost contact when my aunt moved back to Nigeria with her husband in 1979. Could my aunt visit the British high commission as soon as possible?
Two visits to the commission, some interviews and review of some documents later, my aunt was several thousands of pounds richer! What happened? Well when my aunt left London, she forgot all about her pension account. However, her due pension was paid as due into this account over the years. It accumulated and with interest it became a tidy sum. My aunt’s friend in London was on a visit to the pension office and saw my aunt’s name on a list of some inactive pension accounts… the rest is history.
So, let us compare this to the difficulty pensioners in Nigeria face day in day out. My aunt retired as a dentist with a federal institution in Lagos. But she has to travel to Abuja to appear in person for verification and personal audit often, else her pension remains unpaid. Ditto my uncle who retired as director in a key financial parastatal. Aunts at the state level travel to headquarters of LGAS where they served; which in the case of an uncle was 5 hours from d state capital where he retired to and now resided. He told me later; My car was ruined I wonder if the trip was worth it, how much is the pension worth? He narrated to me sadly. My cousin who had sent him the car from Canada was mad as hell! If daddy needed money he ought to have told me! From the look of things we have to look at getting him another car! My uncle is lucky, what of pensioners who don’t have comfortable children to foot their bills and meets their needs?
Well, consider the pension scheme signed by the govt some years ago; is it working? Is it paying off? You hear of stories of people going with their lawyers to claim their pension due to difficulties in access to same. The difficult of access to pension contribution is completely at inverse proportion to the ease of sign on of same! So what is wrong?
I also recall vividly, an insurance executive on NTA news line who said” if pple are paid promptly as at when due with as much curtsy as the customer was wooed, that is the only advert an insurance company needs!” But sadly this is not happening.
I had some experience at an insurance company and I can state categorically that to process insurance claims is anything but easy. I remember an ex-boss of mine who walked into a bank which had an insurance arm (when such arrangements were allowed) and created a scene. This was because he desperately needed the money he had paid faithfully for 4 years, into an insurance account and he was being given impossible conditions. At the end he had to settle for 75% of his contribution (without interest). The insurance salesman who sold him the product was sympathetic but he could not help. Ditto my friend who had to travel abroad for an ear surgery and had to employ some guerrilla tactics to claim his money. Ditto an ex colleague whose husband passed on and the insurance firm claimed she was not due for insurance claims because the man died of a sudden heart attack which he did not indicate he was susceptible to…
Is it all bad news? Unfortunately yes! I am yet to hear one report of a pleasant experience of anyone claiming insurance. There may be but it sure is not common.
There are bodies and institutions that are saddled with the check and regulations of this industry, but you hardly know that they exist! It appears complaints remain complaints and one not ready or able to go head to head with the insurance firms, lose out in the end. In fact it seems the only scenario you see people smiling in any insurance set up is sure to be an advertisement.
The whole thing is akin to one social insecurity armageddon, which may not exactly wipe out society, but surely increase poverty, insecurity, grief and distress in the society
Quickly, the government needs to fix the pension scheme. How do you convince civil servants to serve faithfully while in service, when they can only pray against an ugly death, because after retirement, they have to wait on queues for hours during regular periodic pension audit? Or spend their depleted funds crisscrossing the state and federal capitals to appear in person before an audit team? I had a colleague who had to take a leave every quarter to take his aged dad to the pension commission for an audit check!
Also, the govt needs to review the law signed into law which created the new pension design which was in reaction to the ills that bedevilled the old pension scheme. I remember vividly this law was passed some years ago despite vocal opposition from labour unions. And the Legislature was to conduct a review at some point, of that law, but this never materialized also. Mischievous elements pointed to the lobby via the financial might of the empowered pension firms (empowered by compulsory financial contribution of millions of employers and employees) as responsible for killing that review.
And for the insurance firms, we don’t need sleek adverts performed by eye-catching nollywood stars; we need real experiences by real people of their insurance companies fulfilling their part of the bargain! It is that simple.
BR/Ayo Oyeyipo
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