Following emerging issues in the implementation of the new pension scheme, the Service Providers have initiated moves to ensure the long-awaited scheme is implemented smoothly without further delays. The National Pensions Regulatory Authority, NPRA has noted of plans to license the service providers by April to make the scheme fully operational. JOY BUSINESS is reliably informed the Service Providers namely Trustees, Fund managers and Custodians yesterday met to deliberate over ways of ensuring the Scheme this is effectively realized. The Service Providers met to fashion out ways of establishing some certainty in the timelines given by the Authority. This also comes on the heels of indications by the outgoing Chief Executive of the authority, Dr Daniel Seddoh in his resignation letter. According to him, the licensing process needs to be given some critical thought and be balanced with the development of the appropriate regulatory capacity of the Authority. The service providers are therefore concerned this among other factors could delay their licensing and thus the entire implementation of the scheme. This, they fear could bear some negative implications for them and contributors alike. Their concern is rooted in the fact that more than two years after their registration, they are still yet to do any business and much less generate any income as they are yet to be granted their licenses to start full operations.Meanwhile, they cite the huge investments they have made in their terms of state of the art infrastructure and rented offices among others which they had had to bear the cost without any returns as a business. What’s more, they cite the employees they have kept and being paying all this while also at their cost without any returns yet. These costs they dread are likely to be passed on to the contributors by way of higher service-charges when their start full operations. Apart from these concerns as businesses, the service providers also argue they are worried about the situation because they are also employees and also have employees whose pensions benefits are at stake.