PenCom Set to Open Transfer Window

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has concluded arrangements for the opening of transfer window to customers.

The Executive Director, Operations and Services, Premium Pension Limited, Adamu Mele, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja yesterday.

According to him, there are several institutions handling the identity of Nigerians. “These institutions have to be harmonised to have a centralised data to guard against having multiple identifications.

“It is going to be very difficult to really move people around in terms of their choices because we are talking of life savings here.

“Pension fund management is a very delicate business; you cannot work for 30 or 35 years and then wake up one day and find that you have lost your money.

“So, we have been very careful with the system that we put in place.

“We have had to ensure that right structures are in place to enable us adhere strictly to the guidelines laid out by PenCom with regard to the movement of customers across the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs).

“We are waiting to see what would happen soon. I don’t think it would take long before the transfer window opens,’’ Mele said.

He said harmonised institution and a centralised data for identification of Nigerians would make it easy to determine a person’s biometric and know actually if he was the one being identified.

He noted that PenCom was working round the clock to ensure a hitch-fee movement, adding that there are more than seven million people in the data-base of the Contributory Pension Scheme.

Mele added that the pension industry had generated close to N6.5 trillion, noting that the fund could be deployed to many areas in the economy to fast-track economic development in the country “following well-laid-out PenCom guidelines in this regard.’’

The executive director also urged all the agencies and departments of the states and local governments, as well as corporate companies who had not joined the scheme to do so.

According to him, the scheme remains the most rewarding and workable means of safeguarding the future of Nigerian workers.