– Contributory pension enrolment reaches 10million
Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — The National Pension Commission has announced that the size of the pension asset under its management now stands at N16.76 trillion, while over 10 million employees in Nigeria have enrolled in the contributory pension scheme between 2004 and 2023.
Director General of the National Pension Commission, Aisha Dahir-Umar, said this in Port Harcourt during an interactive session with Organized Private Sector, OPS, on the current developments and challenges in the implementation of the Pension Reform Act 2014.
Dahir-Umar noted that the interactive session was imperative to enlighten the organised private sector on the workings of the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS, share thoughts on emerging developments in the Nigerian pension space and providing an opportunity for Pension Operators to interact with the members of the OPS.
She said, “The pension industry is one of the fastest-growing financial sectors in Nigeria. For instance, at the end of the third quarter of 2023, the number of Retirement Savings Accounts, RSAs, under the CPS stood at 10 million and the size of the pension asset under management amounted to N16.76 trillion. Accordingly, the contributions of the OPS in this regard cannot be overemphasized.
“The Commission has continued to take giant strides towards ensuring the smooth implementation of the CPS through the revision of existing regulations and guidelines and the development of new ones.
“Specifically, the Commission deployed the Enhanced Contributors Registration System for the pension industry, and also introduced the Data Recapture Exercise, which mandatorily requires all RSA holders who joined the CPS prior to the 1st of July 2019 to update their information with their respective Pension Fund Administrators, PFAs.”
Dahir-Umar represented at the event by the Head, Compliance and Enforcement Department, PenCom, Mr. Bala Babangida, said, in order to ensure that RSA holders own a house during their work life, the Commission has released the Guidelines on RSA balance towards payment of equity contribution for residential mortgage by RSA holders.
Members of the OPS would recall that following the “enactment of the PRA, the Commission was saddled with the responsibility of supervising the transfer of the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF contributions of employees into their respective RSAs under the CPS.
“To date, contributions worth N10.20 billion have been transferred to the RSAs of 142,486 NSITF Scheme contributors. Thus, in order to ensure that all contributors under the NSITF Scheme have their NSITF contributions transferred to their RSAs, the Commission had severally featured advertorials in National Dailies requesting NSITF contributors to apply for the transfer of their contributions.
“The Commission wishes to implore all employers to encourage their employees who have contributed to the NSITF Scheme to liaise with their PFAs and in particular Trustfund Pensions for guidance on how to have their contributions transferred to their RSAs.”
Also, the Director-General, Nigeria’s Employers’ Consultative Association, Mr. Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, represented by Chairman of NECA, Port Harcourt Zone, Godfrey Agorom, said prior 2014, life after retirement was uncertain and unpredictable.
“Before 2014, life after retirement could be described as uncertain and unpredictable. However, with the Pension Reform Act 2014, the narration has changed significantly. Significantly because no matter the efforts put into a system or process, there will always be room for improvement. Thus, following the enactment of the Act and with successive PenCom leadership, we have had series of improvements and innovation in the administration of the Pension Scheme.
“The Private sector remain committed to the success of the Pension Scheme as long as our concerns are not only noted but also addressed expeditiously. As a critical stakeholder to the success of the Scheme, we owe everyone the duty to be up and about to ensure the Scheme succeeds.”
