The Director General, Lagos State Pension Commission (LASPEC) Mrs Folasade Ononuga has said that for voluntary scheme to work for the self employed in the country, the government must be making its corresponding contributions.

Ononuga, who made the submission stated that for workers to save towards their old age, there should a form of incentive to motivate them.

“There are many who are self-employed. On the micro scheme, I have mentioned it several times that the voluntary scheme for the self-employed will not work in Nigeria because you cannot expect people to be saving towards their age without the government making corresponding contributions into it.

What is the incentive? There is no incentive for people to save towards their old age. People will rather say instead of keeping this money aside, they want to see whether they can double it in a way that it will give them better returns.

But if an individual knows that he is setting the funds for his retirement age and government is contributing money in that same account so that he doesn’t become a liability in old age, he will be interested in it.

Until they do that, this voluntary pension will not work in this country. Everybody going into a venture must know the benefits of going into that venture. In the United Kingdom, employees contribute and the state contributes and there is commitment to it. In Nigeria, we need to get things right, we must invest in these workers.

That is the only way we can rid our society of corruption and a lot of social ills that are associated with the elderly because they must survive”, she maintained.