National Pension Commission (PenCom) 2nd Quarter Report for 2019

National Pension Commission (PenCom) has released the 2nd Quarter Report for 2019.

Below are notable extracts from the report;

Supervisory Activities
The Commission maintained its consultative philosophy in the regulation and supervision of the industry during the quarter under review. The risk-based examination approach was implemented as a way of promoting transparency and providing early warning signals as well as encouraging pension operators to regularly self-evaluate their positions.

Inspection of Operators Branches in States
The Commission conducted inspection of PFA branches in Ondo and Ekiti Sates. A total of thirteen (13) PFAs were inspected in each of the States. The inspections were to determine the extent of compliance by the PFAs with the circular on minimum requirements for branches and service centers as well as the quality of services rendered to stakeholders in the States. It also sought to ensure that staff of the PFAs were conversant with the provisions of the States Contributory Pension Laws and relevant regulations and guidelines issued by the Commission. At the end of the branch inspections of the PFAs, the issues that were observed include Inadequate Staffing; Poor record keeping; Lack of staff training; Inadequate ICT facilities and Poor service delivery.

Compliance Reports
The Commission reviewed monthly Compliance Reports submitted by Pension Operators. The major issues observed from the review of the compliance reports forwarded by the operators during the quarter under review were un-credited pension contributions, delay in the payment of retirement benefits to the retirees and outstanding commitments from previous routine examinations.

Transfer of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) Contributions to Members RSAs
During the quarter under review, the Commission received 39 batches of NSITF transfer applications totaling N37.62 million on behalf of 546 NSITF members. All the applications were processed and the 546 members’ contributions transferred to their RSAs. From inception to date, the sum of N9.99 billion has been transferred into the RSAs of 138,624 NSITF contributors.

Update on the Refund of Pension Contribution of the Military and Security Agencies
In continuation of the refund of pension contributions to Military and Security Agencies personnel following their exemption from the CPS, the Commission had, during the quarter under review, processed 2,080 applications for refund. In that regard, the sum of ₦142.13 million was refunded to the contributors while ₦83.67 million representing the contributions by the Federal Government was returned to the Contributory Pension Account domiciled with Central Bank of Nigeria.
The extended timeline given to the Tripartite Committee for the Winding Down of the refund exercise ended 30 June, 2019 and the report is being finalized.

Compliance By State Governments
State Governments performance on the implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) still not impressive. As at the second quarter of 2019, a total of 25 States of the Federation have enacted pension laws on the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), seven (7) States are at the bill stage and Five (5) States have, however embarked on pension reform other than the CPS. The Commission continued its engagement with State Governments on the implementation of the CPS. The Commission also conducted the Second Quarter 2019 Consultative Forum for States and the FCT.

RSA Registration and Assets under Management.
The total number of Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) as at 30 June 2019 is 8,722,609
Total assets under the Contributory Pension Scheme rose to approximately N9.33 Trillion as at the end of June 2019.

Withdrawals from Retirement Savings Account

LumpSum and Monthly Pension.
During the 2nd quarter of 2019, the sum of N20.57 billion was paid to 8,174 retirees as lump sum and 355.09 million as monthly programmed withdrawals.

Annuity
The Commission approved a total of 2,941 applications for retirement under life annuity during the quarter, bringing the total number of retirees receiving their retirement benefits through the annuity plan to 68,857 from inception. The 2,941 retirees received N4.68 billion as lump sum payment and paid premium of N17.53 billion to insurance companies and monthly annuity of N184.50 million.

25% of RSA Balance
Approval was granted for payment of N5.28 billion to 10,673 RSA holders who were under the age of 50 years and were disengaged from work and unable to secure another job within 4 months of disengagement.

Death Benefits
The Commission approved the payment of N4.69 billion as death benefits to the beneficiaries of the 1,223 deceased employees during the quarter.

En-Bloc Payments
The Commission granted approval for the payment of the entire RSA balances of the categories of retirees whose RSA balances were N550,000 or below and considered insufficient to procure a Programmed Withdrawal or Annuity of a reasonable amount over an expected life span. The the sum of N665.38 million was paid to 2,801 retirees, which comprised 173 from the public sector retirees (FGN and State) and 2,628 from the private sector retirees.

The full report is also available for your perusal here