Experts proffer solutions on how Nigerians should navigate towards pensionable life

 

Nigerians have been enlightened on the ways, challenges and how to navigate towards a blissful pensionable life without tears.

The enlightenment came from the barrage of speeches delivered by the experts assembled to speak at 2024 Inspenonline Retirement Summit and unveiling of Insurfeel Initiative held in Lagos.

In his opening remarks, the Chairman of the event, Fatai Lawal, Past President Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) and former Managing Director Sterling Assurance Limited commended the convener of the event, Chuks Udo Okonta, noting that the theme “Promoting Retirement Without Tears Through Insurance and Pension” was apt and urged all present at the event to listen to the speakers assembled in order to prepare themselves for a retirement life.

In her keynote address, Adeolu Adewumi-Zer, Founder and Managing Director ZER Consulting Africa, stated that retirement is not the end of one’s journey, but a time to rewrite yourself, time to communicate and make a positive impact.

According to her, “Retirement is an opportunity to learn your passion, time to learn courses online, new skills because in today’s world there are many courses you can learn online. You can use your leadership skills in your community to make positive changes in education, health care among others.”

Adewumi-Zer, highlighted that retirement will help you to launch your own venture, so you need social connection to network, financial security which is the backbone of retirement as well as identify the persons who will help you to determine what your priorities are.

Retirement, she said, is an opportunity to step outside your comfort zone by joining social media groups, an opportunity to discover your new passions and for personal transformation.

She stated further that one will need financial security, so there is a need for financial planning towards retirement; hence you have to engage professional guardians, financial advisers in order to develop a perfect lifestyle.

She urged all those aiming at retirement to use the knowledge gathered as a building block because retirement is a transition which requires financial planning to empower you to navigate financial constraints as well as a time to translate things into concrete terms like housing fund, health care services among others.

“Remember, financial planning is a journey, not a destination. As your life circumstances and retirement vision evolve, so should your financial strategy too. Regularly review your plan, adjust as needed, and most importantly, embrace financial planning as a tool that empowers you to create the fulfilling retirement you deserve. It’s not a ball and chain, but the key that unlocks the door to a world of possibilities in your golden years. Most importantly, start planning today to ensure a future filled with freedom, purpose, and the joy of pursuing your passions,” Adewumi-Zer emphasized.

Mrs Folashade Onanuga,  Managing Director Motodols Consults/Former Director General Lagos State Pension Commission in her presentation stated that as people are planning for aspiration they must have to plan for their expiration because you have money now and it is not sufficient.

She pointed out that when some are promoted in their work places, they begin to live that status, noting that as you get elevated in your work place begin to plan to set aside funds towards your retirement.

Onanuga hinted that some persons are afraid of retirement because as they are getting to the retirement age pressure begins to set in because the reality of them is what will happen to me when I leave office.

“As you retire you are going to live with a normal circle of friends, a new phase of life and now with lesser people. After you have left such a structured environment to an unstructured environment what will happen to you? How do I position myself from my work place? Now for those who have retired, retirement is not the end of your life,” she explained.

According to her, retirement is just a bend, so once you navigate the bend, you will see a brighter future, a normal life ahead of you, you will be a voice and not an echo living a transformed life in your hands.

She lamented that some people believe that their retirement plan is for their children, stressing that it is a mistake to think that when you retire your children will take care of you.

She opined that some children out there after you retire still want to get something from their parents after schooling, therefore children are not your pension plan.

“The children that we have out there are not like the children who take care of the elderly. They will in your retirement be looking at what they can get from you and not what they can add to you. The children we have are our creation right now as we keep on giving them everything and subconsciously, we are creating children with no feeling. So don’t give your children everything while they are young except you can afford it. It will get to a time that the children will not be there, that is why we have to plan for retirement,” she emphasized.

She also stated that many people believe that their employers have pension plans for them, adding that now that we are in the contributory pension scheme dispensation, people should begin to make demands and ask questions to know how their funds are being invested and how it grows.

“If you find out that your PFA is making judicious use of your fund you can change your PFA to those that are performing well. If you look at your retirement plan and it is not growing, ask what happened,” she advised.

She cited that there is an equity mortgage contribution where one can collect some money from your contribution because you need shelter, transportation and health care.

She noted that the RSA has also given an opportunity to access part of your money, adding that there are levels of funds and advised that if the person is still very , that person can put his or her pension fund  in fund 1.

She maintained that you need additional pension contributions towards your wellbeing, noting that we don’t have a saving culture because you live everyday as it comes and so when you retire there is nothing to fall back on.

Onanuga emphasized that you don’t have to touch your retirement fund because you are saving for yourself a glorious future.

“Apart from what the RSA offers I want to encourage us that if we are to retire without tears one of the greatest things is just to ensure that we don’t live above our means, so we should live below our means. Five years to your retirement you must stop all the expensive spending and not be paying for any loan. The bottom line is your ability to cultivate a safety net which is the thing that will give you a good life. Know your income and begin to scale down your expenditure.

“Begin to develop yourself and your relationship with people in the office and out of office. Don’t look for fast ways to develop your pension money because the higher the interest the higher the risk and you can lose everything. Don’t go for things that have high returns like the MMM ponzi scheme. What you don’t know how it operates or don’t have interest in don’t go into it,” Former DG Lagos State Pension Commission said.

She harped on the need to be relevant and begin to look for a second scheme of income while working because if they tell you to leave that job one day, you will begin to feel bitter, so how to stand on your own for people to see that you are making it should be your ultimate action.

“Find your purpose and be intentional about it before you retire,” she cautioned.

Val Ojumah, a special guest and former Managing Director of Salaam Nigeria advised that people should forget about the position they occupy which is transient, not forever and so begin to build true friendship, start building that block of life after work.

“The life you want to live after retirement does not depend upon how much money you made when you were working. Not acknowledging that you will retire one day so they don’t prepare because we are greedy and we don’t prepare for retirement.

“ What you could have gotten from your pension is not comparable to what you could have gotten if you were doing an investment through some other experts ,” Ojumah added.

Tunde Mimiko, a discussant and Managing Director of  Salaam Nigeria, stated  that to live that fulfilling life is all about financial planning, so there is the need to access your current position and determine what sort of financial net you want to leave for yourself.

There is a need for contentment, he said, so you need a financial planner who will help you to plan and start working towards it to achieve your goal.

“Be very disciplined and committed to putting your fund towards retirement. Have additional voluntary contributions from your insurance company that can also put that financial net you want for yourself. At Salaam, we help you in articulating your plans towards retirement. It is important to remain disciplined and follow through the insurance plan. So, 80 to 90 per cent of your income now should be towards retirement and let your expenses be far below your income level. Even when you retire from your passion. Start working towards developing yourself in any capacity that can make you relevant after retirement,” Mimiko added.

Adetola Adegbayi, Founder Mutual Aid Specialists said that one needs to prove his or her retirement and so you should preserve the same life that you have at retirement.

She listed the compulsory employment contribution and additional voluntary contribution, while the alternative one to it is to buy an endowment from it for your future.

“You can decide what kind of lifestyle you want for yourself for your future if that kind of lifestyle, so mark it in foreign exchange and then go to an insurance company that you want to buy X amount of endowment. Let’s say you want a 50 million endowment the insurance people will charge you for that 50million knowing that 30 years you have access to the 50 million in addition to whatever employment compulsory contribution is.

“ If you have a skill in sewing, bakery, engineering, innovation, then you can take some of your current income to put into those skills which you do maybe on weekends and it could yield you some income at retirement. The price of your skills will also respond to the price of inflation at that time, but the value of the money in your savings account is being eroded by inflation.

“ So, you have to think out of the box to preserve your wealth, keeping well and everything as we face the reality.”

She pointed out that in Nigeria we do not sweat our land like in other climes because we are after services and looking for somebody to pay us instead of somebody we can pay.

She lamented that in Nigeria, many people don’t pay taxes, they cheat the government, steal from themselves and don’t care who we vote for, arguing that we should pay our taxes like the payees and then we can demand for accountability from the government as well as our pension.

Benedict Ujoatuonu, Managing Director Universal Insurance Plc, while speaking before the unveiling of the Insurfeel Initiative at the event, formally thanked Chuks Udo Okonta, the publisher of Inspenonline and promoter of Retirement Summit for introducing this initiative to deepen insurance penetration.

“A lot of people are not aware about insurance, so when Chuks came up with the idea, he said that our company at the end of each year appreciates our customers with goods but we have never appreciated them with our own products. Those other products you are buying are you not promoting those products, so why are you not promoting your own products? So, we agreed that the idea and the initiative will thrive,” Managing Director Universal Insurance Plc said.

Ujoatuonu stated that they have a tailor-made product for those who have never had access with insurance and to encourage them to have a feel of insurance and imbibe the culture of buying insurance having experienced what insurance is all about. So, we are working on one million insurance covers in 2024 to 2025 through this initiative.

He pledged to partner with Inspenonline to achieve the goal of the initiative.

Earlier in his welcome address, Chuks Udo Okonta, the publisher of Inspenonline and promoter of Retirement Summit thanked all those who found time to grace the event.

Okonta said that the event is to set the template on how people should prepare for retirement, the need for organisations to prepare their workers for retirement and to unveil insurfeel initiative.

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