No fewer than 5.1 million pension fund contributors are set to undergo fresh data recapturing. This became necessary after they submitted either incomplete or no data during the previous data recapturing exercise in the pension industry, LEADERSHIP learnt at the weekend.
Findings show that, of the 9.27 million Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders, only 4.1 million pension contributors were able to submit the needed and correct data requested of them by their respective Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) last year.
To this end, the National Pension Commission (PenCom) has advised the concerned contributors to go to their PFAs to recapture their data, which allow them access their contributions at retirement as well as ensure they can switch PFAs if they are not contented with the current ones.
In a data released by the pension industry regulatory body at the weekend, 5.1 million RSAs had incomplete documentation as at Q4 2020.
It added that, nonetheless, the engagement of agents to conduct data recapture on behalf of all PFAs is expected to address this issue and validate all relevant documents under the profile of individual RSA holders.
According to PenCom, “Another notable outcome of the monthly reports review was the un-credited pension contributions domiciled in the Contribution Reconciliation Accounts (CRAs) and the Transitional Contributory Funds (TCFs) of the Pension Operators. The Commission however, mandated the Pension Operators to ensure resolution of all outstanding un-credited contributions and file progress reports at regular intervals.”
Stating that the monthly reports indicated that a total of 3.5 million RSAs had remained unfunded as at the end of Q4 2020, the regulatory body added that, majority of these unfunded accounts belonged to employees of state governments and private sector organisations.
Similarly, the Micro Pension Plan (MPP) seems to be gaining momentum as more people are leveraging it to plan their lives and future retirement.
According to PenCom’s data, during the fourth quarter of 2020, 20 PFAs registered 3,663 contributors under the micro pension plan and a total sum of N25 million was remitted to the RSAs of contributors within the same period.
