FG: Contributory Pension Enrolment Hits 10m, Recorded N16.76tn Asset Base in 2023

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) yesterday announced that over 10 million employees in Nigeria enrolled for the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) between 2004 and 2023.

Director General of the commission, Mrs Aisha Dahir-Umar, disclosed this in her address during a one-day interactive session,  held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State and jointly organised with the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA).

Dahir-Umar who was represented by the Head, Compliance and Enforcement Department, PenCom, Bala Babangida, also revealed that since the establishment of the commission till date, it had recorded about N16.76trillion pension assets so far.

The PenCom DG explained that the objectives of the programme was to enlighten the private sector on the workings of the scheme, share thoughts on emerging developments in the Nigerian pension space and provide an opportunity for pension operators to interact with the private sector .

She said: “As you are aware, 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.”

 Dahir-Umar explained that the commission had 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.

She said in order to facilitate the implementation of Section 13 of the 2014 relevant Act, which allows an RSA holder to transfer his or her RSA from one fund administrator to another at least once in a year, the commission developed and deployed the RSA Transfer System (RTS) in 2020.

“The RTS is a computer-based application for initiating, processing, and monitoring the RSA transfer process. It also ensures the seamless transfer of RSAs from one PFA to another.

“Amongst others, the opening of the RSA transfer window has continued to improve the quality of service delivery by the PFAs.

“Again, in order to ensure that RSA holders own a house during their work life, the commission has released the guidelines on accessing RSA balance towards payment of equity contribution for residential mortgage by RSA holders,” she added.

The PenCom boss recalled that following the enactment of the Act, 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,” she added.

The PenCom DG however, urged employers to encourage their employees who have contributed to the NSITF Scheme to liaise with their Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) and in particular Trustfund Pensions for guidance on how to have their contributions transferred to their RSAs.

She assured the OPS that the commission will continue to ensure robust social dialogue with NECA in the interest of all stakeholders under the CPS. “Accordingly, the commission will always support NECA to champion programmes that will ensure the successful implementation of the CPS in Nigeria,” she stressed.

In his remarks, the Director General, NECA, Mr. Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde stressed that following the enactment of the Act and with successive PenCom leadership, there had been series of improvements and innovation in the administration of the pension scheme.

Oyerinde who was represented by the Chairman of NECA, Port Harcourt Geographical Group (comprising Rivers and Bayelsa States), Bala Babangida, said the event was organised to educate and sensitise the people.

“This is because there are many employers who do not have knowledge of this. They have people working for them and they are just on their own, if anything happens to them any day you will see these people lose out,” he said.