The Federal Government has given in to the threat of a strike by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) for not constituting the governing board of the National Pension Commission (PenCom) by appointing Mr Opeyemi Agbaje as the chairman.
The news of Agbaje’s appointment was confirmed by impeccable NLC sources, as well as some industry officials.
At the end of its August 13th meeting, the Central Working Committee of the NLC requested the constitution of the PenCom Governing Board in line with the law within seven working days.
The NLC also asked PenCom to submit to the labour union a full status report of the funds within these same seven days.
The spokesman for PenCom, Mr Ibrahim Buwal, stated that there was no official confirmation from the presidency yet as to Agbaje’s appointment.
Section 19 of the Pension Reform Act 2014 establishes PenCom’s Governing Board, which consists of 16 members. The Chairman, Director-General, and four full-time Commissioners will be selected by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
The remaining ten members represent major stakeholder institutions such as the Nigeria Labour Congress, the Trade Union Congress, the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, and the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, among others.
Meanwhile, Agbaje, the recently appointed chairman of the pension industry regulator, is the CEO of RTC Advisory Services Ltd (previously Resources and Trust Company Ltd). RTC Advisory Services Ltd is a strategy and business advisory firm that operates two primary strategic business units: RTC Strategy and Advisory and RTC policy.
Agbaje has worked in the financial industry. He earned a master’s degree in law from the University of Lagos and an MBA from the IESE Business School in Spain in 1997.
He formerly served on the board of the Lagos State Security Trust Fund for two terms, from 2011 to August 2019.
