Operators have been urged to introduce measures to reduce the effect of inflation on workers’ pension contributions by the Director-General, National Pension Commission, Mr Muhammad Ahmad.

He said this while making a presentation on ‘The pension industry – the way forward’.

Ahmad said, “There is a need to ensure that contributors and retirees do not suffer unduly for the depreciation of the naira over the years.

“For instance, in 2012, one dollar exchanged for an average of N170. Today, one dollar exchanges for an average of N360. What this means is that the pension contributors have had the value of their contributions eroded by over 100 per cent in that period of no fault of yours or the fund managers.”

Ahmad, who is also the chairman of Polaris Bank, said the Federal Government needed to prioritise the payment of accrued rights of retirees.

Although the government had been religiously paying the monthly pension contributions based on the old rates, he said it had not been able to meet up with the adequate and regular payment of accrued pension rights.

He observed that this was causing untold hardship and pain to many who had been waiting for years for their Retirement Savings Accounts to be funded appropriately.

“This is non-negotiable, and we should constantly bring this up at every opportunity until the government funds these accrued rights,” Ahmad said.

Although the National Pension Commission had been statutorily empowered by the Pension Reform Act 2014 to direct the Accountant General of the Federation to deduct at source unpaid accrued pension rights, he said that the power had never been exercised because of political constraints.

The continued success of the pension industry would largely be hinged on the ability of the employers to honour their obligations as and when due, he said.

Ahmad said that in the recent past, members of the National Assembly had assisted in getting the government to accelerate the payment of arrears of accrued pension rights.

He mentioned that it would appear another tier of unpaid obligations had been built, and the industry would once again require the collective efforts of all stakeholders for timely payment of the accrued rights.

Bernard Ayieko, a Nairobi-based economist said in a commentary published by the Business Daily newspaper that African countries should hasten the adoption of the Chinese legal tender.

Ayieko stated that the adoption of the yuan would boost the ability of African countries to attract new investments and trade favourably at the global market.

“The Chinese growing influence and the increase in Sino-Africa relations have brought to the fore a debate on the African countries’ need to adopt the renminbi as a currency reserve,” Ayieko added.

He said that the internalisation of yuan, or renminbi, would boost globalisation and foreign trade that Africa could leverage to propel growth.

“The call to internationalise the renminbi continues to reverberate across the world.

“African countries are mulling the need to use the renminbi as a reserve currency and a medium of exchange in international settlements,” Ayieko said.

The internationalisation of yuan reached a milestone in 2016 when it joined the International Monetary Fund basket of reserve currencies alongside the U.S. dollar, the Euro, Japanese Yen and the British Pound.

“Premised on the increased trade, loans and grants to Africa from China, there has been incessant debate in Africa that time is nigh for African countries to adopt the yuan as a reserve currency.

“The growing China-Africa trade has increased the yuan’s convertibility in settling financial transactions between countries.

“By adopting the yuan as a reserve currency, African countries will trade smoothly at both bilateral and multilateral levels because it will be easier to make international transactions between many countries that require diverse currencies for financial settlements,” Ayieko said.

Justice R.M. Aikawa of the Federal High Court in Lagos on Monday, have ordered Mastercard and its agents to stop the production of the national identity cards issued by National Identity Management Commission.

This order was made following an ex parte motion filed by Chams Plc and Chams Consortium Limited on August 28, 2019.

The ex parte, which also included an Anton Pillar order, was issued on November 7, 2019.

In their statement of claim, Chams Plc and CCL asked Mastercard to pay the sum of N114bn for damages.

Other defendants in the case are President and Chief Executive, Mastercard International, Ajay Banga; Country Representative of Mastercard in Nigeria, Omokehinde Ojomuyide; a member of staff of Mastercard, Daniel Monehin; the NIMC; and 22 commercial banks as respondents.

The order of the court states inter alia, “An order of interim injunction restraining the defendants, whether acting by themselves or by their directors, officers, servants, agents, technical managers, or otherwise however from further manufacturing, producing, designing and or printing or authorising the manufacturing, production, designing and or printing of any National Identity Card with MasterCard logo as described in paragraph 16 of the supporting affidavit in Exhibit CC9 pending the determination of the motion on notice filed for hearing.”

A similar order was given to 22 respondent banks in Nigeria restraining them from honouring or giving effect to any transaction from Mastercard.

A breakdown of the statement of claim showed that N84bn was for special damages as a result of loss of expected revenue for eight years; N10bn for general damages of fraud perpetrated jointly and severally against the claimants; and N20bn for inducing the breach and termination of the concessions awarded to the claimants by the NIMC, which occurred as a result of the Mastercards’ alleged fraudulent actions.

It will be recalled that in 2006, Chams was invited by the Federal Government to bid for the National ID project for which it competed and emerged the preferred bidder for the national ID concession.

Upon the execution of the concession agreement with the NIMC, Chams said it pursued the implementation of the concession by incorporating Chams Consortium Limited, a special purpose vehicle with the sole aim of implementing the NIC concession.

Chams said it also invited Mastercard to work with the Chams Consortium as one of its technical partners on the concession.

Mastercard was accused of colluding with others using technical information and design shared with them by Chams to frustrate the concession won by Chams and more than $100m Chams/CCL invested in the project.

In an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari and published earlier in the year, Chams and CCL asked MasterCard to accept its wrongdoing, apologise for the breach of contract and pay compensation to CCL and Chams for their more than $100m investment and accumulated losses.

The sudden death of Mrs. Chibuzor Balogun, 30+ shocked residence of No. 2 Raji Aliu Street off the Airport Road, Ajao Estate, last Wednesday. It was more shocking when her husband passed away the following day.

According to Uche, his mother had been complaining of general weakness of the body for some days and the family thought that it was a minor thing.

He added that Chibuzor started excreting loose stool and vomiting and it was at this point that they realised it could be something serious.

Uche stated that his father, Isiaka Balogun, aka Gaddafi, rushed his mother to a clinic, where she was placed on certain medication and she was discharged later.

He said when they got back home, her condition worsened, noting that before they could get a vehicle to convey her to hospital, she died.

The teenager stated, “She told me that she was vomiting in the morning after I left for school. When I returned from school in the afternoon, I met her in bed; she looked pale. She told me that she had been excreting loose stool and vomiting. I asked my dad to take her to hospital. And when he took her to hospital, they gave her an injection and he brought her back home.

“She was still experiencing pains as was excreting and vomiting after returning from the hospital. I had to get her 7Up and added some salt to it and gave her to drink to see if it could give her strength since the doctor said it was cholera.

“My dad had to take her to the same hospital but they rejected her. We had to rush her to the General Hospital, Isolo, and when we got there, the doctor examined her and told us that she couldn’t make it. One of our family friends and I had to return home, leaving my father behind.”

Uche added that in the afternoon, he received a call concerning his father’s health and he and some of relatives and friends quickly went to the hospital.

He said they tried to ensure that Isiaka was admitted to the general hospital, but he was rejected by doctors and nurses there.

As a result, they moved him to the Jericho Hospital in Mafoluku, where he was admitted.

Uche added, “He was on the second drip when I noticed that the drip had stopped and he began to breathe heavily.

“Out of apprehension, I called the doctor, who pushed me out of the room and asked me to stay outside.

“Due to their delay in coming out, I went inside to check what had happened. When I asked the doctor again if my dad was breathing, he told me that he couldn’t make it.

“Now we don’t have a mother and a father. We are four boys – the youngest is two, while I am 14. How am I going to take care of these ones?

“This house, which was my grandfather’s house, had been sold. I learnt that my father used part of the money he realised from the sale of this place to build a house at the tollgate area. I don’t know the area. I only know that he did not complete the house; only one part of it has been roofed as I was told.”

However, some residents of the estate are worried by the cholera outbreak.