Pension contributors hit 8.04m, membership rises by 1.93% in Q1

First Quarter (Q1) E 2018 report released by the National Pensions Commission (PenCom), has shown a promising future for the industry following growth in the microeconomic sections in different sectors of the economy.

According to PenCom, the pension industry recorded a 1.93 per cent growth in membership in Q1, up from 7.89 million contributors at the end of 2017 to 8.04 million.

The growth in the industry membership was driven by the Retirement Savings Account (RSA)s Scheme, which registered new 152,065 contributors representing 1.94 percent.

However, membership of the Closed Pension Fund Administration Scheme (CPFA), declined by 41 members to 23,656, while the Approved Existing Scheme (AES) membership remained unchanged at 40,951.

The Retirement Savings Account (RSA) registration indicates a 1.09 per cent increase in membership from the public sector in Q1 to stand at 3,516,873. This figure represents 44.09 per cent of the total RSA registration in the review period.

Similarly, membership from the private sector increased by 2.63 per cent to stand at 114,059 in Q1, which brought total registration from the sector to 55.91 per cent to stand at 4,459,103 of the total RSA registration, moving from 4,345,044 in Q4 2017.

The rise was attributed to increased level of compliance by the private sector as a result of the various steps taken by the Commission to improve compliance and coverage as well as marketing strategies of the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs).

Meanwhile, through recovery agents engaged to recover unremitted pension contributions, about 4,634 organisations remitted the sum of N48.94billion into the RSAs of 10,020 employees, and were in turn, issued compliance certificates the report said.

In Q1, 785 applications for the transfer of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) contributions totaling N53.47million were processed, and the contributions for 781 members were transferred to their respective RSAs.

To date, the sum of N9.75billion has been transferred into the RSAs of 135,606 NSITF contributors.

Nonetheless, the Commission is yet to resolve 295 complaints relating to non-remittance of pension contributions, NSITF pension payments and pension payments under the Pension Transitional Arrangements Directorate (PTAD), require further action by pension operators.

PenCom also disclosed the recovery of an outstanding pension contribution of N309.38million representing principal contribution of N209.32million, and penalty of N99.56million.

This brought the total recoveries made to date to N14.01billion, comprising principal contribution of N7.16billion and penalty of N6.85billion.

Also, about 217 applications were processed for the refund of contributions to military personnel and other security agencies.

N37.42million was refunded to the contributors, while N144.15million being the employers’ contributions was refunded to the CPS account at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

On implementation update by state governments, nine states are yet to enact laws on the CPS, while eight are still at the bill stage, and one yet to commence the CPS process.

However, apart from enacting laws on the CPS, 24 out of the 36 states are yet to commence the remittance of contributions into the RSAs of their employees, in contravention of the Pensions Reform Act 2014.