Pension practitioners in the country have been charged to exhibit professionalism in discharging their duties to their clients. This was the core of a paper presented by Mr. Omotayo Gbede, fellow, Nigerian Institute of Marketing (NIMN) on ‘Marketing etiquettes for an emerging industry’ at a compulsory continuous professional education programme organised for pension professionals by Certified Pension Institute of Nigeria (CPIN) in Lagos recently.
He said it is essential that the pension industry in Nigeria under the auspices of the Nigeria Pensions Commission (Pencom) and the CPIN create ethical rules that will form the bedrock of professional behaviour and conduct in the emerging Pensions Industry in Nigeria. This he said has become imperative in the light of recent happenings in the banking sector which he adduced to lack of compliance with the banking ethics.
 “It is very essential for an emerging professional institute like the CPIN devoted to the evolution of a virile emerging industry like the pensions industry in an emerging economy like the Nigerian economy to be concerned about the issue of ethics in both the profession and the industry” he stated. He added that it is important for the institute to lay down the minimum level of ethical standards and practices with which its professional members, individual or corporate must comply.
According to him, whenever such rules are established, compliance officers must be established by individual companies in the industry who must report on ethical compliance or violations, with set up controls and rules and regulations issued by Pencom as well as compliance with corporate governance principles.
Members of pension profession he said must respect the code of ethics set up by the institute in all the facets of their operations, while the institute must be ready to sanction any erring member in accordance with the charter or bylaws establishing it. He therefore advised that ethics and disciplinary committee be set up with clearly defined responsibilities to regulate the activities of members.
Gbede said professional ethics will become industry ethics when the industry is made up of professionals, adding that not all industries have professional ethics. 
“Industry ethics for industries with deterministic outputs like the manufacturing sector are usually set by the industry regulator especially in terms of quality, pricing and manufacturing conditions. Other standards are set by legal commercial codes and other general laws as well as common law.”
Speaking further, he said a careful analysis of the pension’s management industry will reveal its emergence as a new profession upon which long term social sustenance and stability rests. “It is an industry made up of professionals whose ethical standards must be high if the industry’s future is to be assured. It is an industry that thrives on reputation capital for its effective functioning” he stated.
He added that in the codification of its ethical standards for the industry, the CPIN and Pencom must look at the dynamics of the environment in which they operate as well as the dynamics of other economic climes where best practices had already been established and functioning. Ethical responsibilities, he submitted, are predicated   upon professional behaviour of the professional based on the principles of    equity and fairness and consideration of consumer rights and interests.
“In the pensions management industry therefore, professionals should be truthful, honest and transparent. Product information should be correct and their features must not be misrepresented or falsified. Material information must not be misleading or   omitted from product documentation.”
He concluded by saying pension managers and administrators must be equitable by charging administration fees in line with laid down guidelines, while trading in investment must be justifiable through decisions based on proven fundamentals. The workshop is a regular programme organised by CPIN to update members on current development in the pension industry.

Lawyers berate Lagos govt over pension law

By Sesan David
Pension lawyers in the country under the aegis of Pension Lawyers Association of Nigeria (Plan) have criticized the Lagos state pension Act, especially the section that says an employee of the state dismissed for fraud will forfeit the 7.5 percent contribution made to the employee’s retirement saving account (RSA) by the state government.
The lawyers who made their views known on a television station monitored in Lagos recently said no law in the country or anywhere should be applied in retrospect. Stephen Obajala, secretary general, Plan, argued that if any employee is found guilty of an offence, the normal thing in law is to punish such based on its current offence without denying him of the contributions the state has made to his RSA.  He said the Lagos state pension act is just one of the many grey areas that have been identified by the lawyers under the Pension Reforms Act 2004 and that they have been compiling lists of such laws with the intention of presenting them to the national assembly for amendment.
John Osigala, vice president, Plan, said the government should made contributory pensions compulsory for every Nigerian, saying the PRA Act at present does not give room for serious enforcement and punishment for defaulters. He lamented a situation where only 13 states out of the 36 states in the country have complied with the new pension reform. He said the National Pension Commission should be empowered to carry out full sanction against defaulting organisations and regretted a situation where many organisations have been defaulting in remitting the 7.5 per cent compulsory minimum contributions to employees’ retirement saving account.
The association said though the impact of current global economic meltdown is real on every sector of Nigerian economy, strict adherence to PRA Act 2004 which stipulates the maximum investment of not more than 25 per cent that can be made by PFAs on any equity as the saving grace for the industry. They argued that the effect of the global economic meltdown would have been worse but for the clause in Pension Reform Act.