Technology ‘can improve’ Nigeria’s pension system

Chams Plc, a Lagos-based company, says Nigeria must take advantage of technological advancements to improve its pension system.

Gavin Young, group managing director of Chams Plc, spoke on Monday at a briefing to introduce “I’m Alive”, a facial biometric mobile application, developed by the company. 

Young said the initiative is part of the company’s commitment towards improving pensioners’ quality of life, especially amid the coronavirus pandemic.

He said the challenges facing pensioners in the country are indications that the current pension system is flawed and in dire need of change.

“To fulfil the requirements of periodic verification, government and private pensioners are faced with the huge challenge of having to travel long distances from their villages and rural locations, often at great expense, discomfort and hardship to verify themselves, some are indisposed to physically attend the verification location and lots more,” he said.

“On the other hand, the current verification process is not efficient to pension administrators as it comes with administrative bottlenecks which impedes government and private pension administrators from carrying out effective verification exercises.”

He said the problems in the traditional verification process informed the quest to leverage on technological innovations to improve the country’s pension system.

“This app facilitates quick and easy verification for both government and private pensioners, and provides pension administrators with comprehensive reporting to ultimately facilitate pension payments,” he said.

“The solution would go a long way towards solving a major process-intensive hurdle for the Pension Industry.”

Highlighting its features, he said the app is supported by artificial intelligence to help “detect liveliness and authenticate the pensioner for payment processing.”