BY NKECHI NAECHE-ESEZOBOR—-A total of 442,000 retirees received N1.63trillion as lump sum on annuity and programmed withdrawal in the last 15 years.
Chief Executive Officer, Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria,(PenOp), Oguche Agudah, disclosed this at the yearly media parley with Nigeria Association Of Insurance and Pension Editors, (NAIPE) with the theme: “At the dawn of 20 years pension reforms, what are the gains?” organised by the Association in Lagos.
The breakdown shows that the industry since inception paid a total of N665.23 billion to 111.708 applicants as lump sum on life annuity as at second quarter of 2023.
On retirees under Programmed Withdrawal, he said the lump sum paid on programmed withdrawal stood at N964,239.47 billion as at the same quarter of 2023.
Withdrawal of 25% RSA balance on loss of job, he said the industry paid N208.86 billion to 475,000 Nigerians who lost their jobs from inception of the scheme to Q2 2023.
Approval of death benefits payment rose to N356.32 billion as death benefits to the beneficiaries of 91,214 deceased employees since inception of the scheme.
Earlier, Head of Surveillance Department PenCom, Ehimeme Ohioma, in an opening remark, listed return on investment, service delivery and skills as some of the challenges confronting the industry.
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On return on investment he explained that returns on investment must be above inflation, stating that if the returns are not above inflation, there will be a problem. “How do we make the pension funds to earn real return on investment.?”
Service delivery—“There will always be problems but how well and soon the issues are addressed is critical to the success of the industry. There will always be complain from the contributors but it lies with the regulator and operators to ensure the complains are promptly treated.
“Service delivery is key and to ensure that the industry has efficient and effective service delivery the commission in 2022 increased the minimum regulatory capital for Pension Fund Administrators. This is to ensure they have enough capital to be able to have critical infrastructure as well as to be able to run their business efficiently and well to be able to serve the public, have good staff and conducive offices.”
“Capacity is continuous thing because the world is very dynamic. The skills of the industry practitioners both the operators as well as the commission needs to be constantly upgraded to meet the acceptable standard.”
Highlighting some of the achievement of the industry since inception, he said the industry asset under management grew from zero to N17.35 trillion as at October, 2023 with annual growth rate which rose from zero to 20.32%.
