CONTRIBUTORY PENSION SCHEME IMPLEMENTATION AND LECTURERS’ JOB COMMITMENT IN SOUTH-SOUTH NIGERIA UNIVERSITIES

ABSTRACT

The study investigated Contributory Pension Scheme Implementation and Lecturers’ Job Commitment in South-South Nigerian Universities. This study was motivated by the alleged poor job commitment of Nigerian university lecturers and the observed protest on the poor implementation of the contributory pension scheme. To guide the study, nine research questions were raised, two were answered and seven were hypothesized.

The study was a descriptive survey research that adopted correlational design. The population of the study was all the lecturers in the six Federal Universities in South-South Nigeria. The sample consisted of 579 lecturers in four selected universities established before the introduction of Contributory Pension Scheme in the region. A multistage stratified random sampling was used in selecting the sample size of the study. Two research questionnaires were used for data collection. Contributory Pension Scheme Implementation Questionnaire (CPSIQ); and University Lecturers’ Job Commitment Questionnaire(ULJCQ). The reliability of the questionnaires were determined using Cronbach alpha statistics with values of 0.96 for CPSIQ and 0.83 for ULJCQ respectively which showed that the questionnaires were reliable. The data collected were collated and analyzed with Mean (x̄) and standard deviation to answer the research questions while the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Statistic was used to test hypothesis 1. The Pearson Product Moment Coefficient and Fisher’s Z statistics were used to test hypotheses 2, 3, 4 and 7. Hypotheses 5 and 6 were tested using the Analysis of Co-Variance(ANCOVA) at 0.05 level of significance.

The study revealed that the level of Contributory Pension Scheme implementation as perceived by lecturers in South-South Nigerian Universities was low. It also revealed that the level of Job Commitment of University Lecturers in South-South Nigerian Universities was low; and that there was a significant relationship between Contributory Pension Implementation and Lecturers’ Job Commitment in South-South Nigerian Universities. The study therefore, recommended among others that government and university management should address the concerns of lecturers about the implementation of Contributory Pension Scheme in Nigerian Universities by ensuring prompt and regular remittance of deductions to lecturers’ Retirement Savings Accounts (RSA) so as to create confidence. In addition, university management and Pension Fund Administrators should encourage lecturers to increase their level of job commitment through regular payment of pensions to retired lecturers.