The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has released the Retirement Savings Accounts (RSA) remittance data of N7.42 billion in the fourth quarter of last year.
This is coming on the heels of PenCom’s barring Pension Fund Administrators (PFA) from investing in the bonds of nine states that are yet to amend their state pension laws and join the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
The RSA report showed remittance of N7.42 billion into the RSA within the period. The funds were remitted into 966,155 employees’ accounts, out of 2,044 organisations but the private sector still controls the larger proportion of RSA. Beyond the RSA remittances, PenCom has for years taken major steps to deepen the pension industry and protect contributors’ investments.
The remittance data, analysts say, raises lots of hope for pension contributors and the industry. It also shows the private sector still ahead of public sector in terms of RSA remittances.
According to the report, PenCom received a total of 3,046 applications for the issuance of Pension Compliance Certificates, out of which 2,044 were approved and issued. Also, 1,002 applications were rejected for failing to meet appropriate requirements.
The report shows that the cumulative number of applications received during the year was 16,536 out, of which 16,100 were approved and issued certificates while 436 were rejected. PenCom reiterated that it continued to apply various strategies to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Pension Reform Act of 2014.
The pension industry had achieved a 1.63 per cent growth in the scheme membership during the fourth quarter of 2018, moving from 8.34 million contributors at the end of the preceding quarter to 8.47 million.
The report showed that the growth recorded in the industry membership was driven by the RSA Scheme, which had an increase of 138,236 contributors representing 1.64 per cent.
The RSA registrations also grew by 0.82 per cent (29,455) in RSA membership from the public sector to stand at 3.6 million. The figure represents 42.92 per cent of the total RSA registrations.
Also, the private sector membership rose by 2.32 per cent (108,781) in the quarter under review, which brought total registrations from this sector to 4.8 representing 57.08 per cent of total RSA membership. This growth can be attributed to the increased level of compliance by the private sector.
Further analysis of the report showed that the commission received 1,282 applications for transfer of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) applications totaling N56.78 million.