BY NKECHI NAECHE-ESEZOBOR–The National Pension Commission (PenCom) on Tuesday appealed to all active Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders and retirees to cooperate with agents that would be visiting their organisations to carry out the Data Recapture Exercise (DRE)
According to statement released by the commission through its Head, Corporate Communications Department, PenCom, Peter Aghahowa, that the Commission remains committed to providing necessary support to the pension industry to ensure the success of the DRE.
The commission had in August 2019 introduced the Data Recapture Exercise to obtain complete, accurate and current data of all RSA holders (both active and retired), stressing that Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) were directed by the Commission to obtain the relevant information required for the DRE from RSA holders and the process is on-going and that one of the information required for the exercise is the National Identity Number (NIN).
“The Commission is desirous to ensure that all RSA holders are able to exercise their rights of transferring their RSAs from one PFA to another, in anticipation of the formal launch of the RSA Transfer System during the last quarter of 2020. The Commission therefore wishes to notify all RSA holders that the completion of the DRE is a prerequisite for processing any RSA transfer request by RSA holders who registered before 1 July 2019,” he said.
The statement added that to fast-track the DRE, the Commission approved a proposal of the Pension Operators’ Association of Nigeria (PenOp) for an industry Shared Service Initiative (SSI), adding that PenOp has engaged agents to conduct the DRE on behalf of all PFAs.
It further said that “This arrangement will enhance efficiency in carrying out the exercise as it would allow an agent to recapture all RSA holders in the same organization on behalf of all PFAs. In partnership with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), the selected agents will have the ability to carry out NIN registrations seamlessly,” he posited.
DRE involves recapturing the personal data of all registered RSA holders, who must provide their NIN to their PFAs, in line with the federal government’s directive that every Nigerian must have a NIN.
PenCom had directed PFAs to embark on the recapturing exercise, following the slow adoption of the Enhanced Contributor Registration System (ECRS) application, a platform deployed by the commission to build a credible database of contributors under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
