L-R: Mr. Ibrahim Garba Buwai (Principal Manager, Corporate Communications Department); Dr. Babatunde Alayande (Head, South West Zonal Office); Mrs. Carol Alex Uzomah (Assistant General Manager, Corporate Communications Department); Mr. Peter Aghahowa (Head, Corporate Communications Department); Hajiya Maryam Bello (Assistant General Manager, National Databank Management Department; Mr. Ibrahim Kangiwa (Head, Research and Strategy Management Department) at the 2021 Journalists Workshop at Radisson Blu Hotel on 26 July 2021.

By Ngozi Onyeakusi—-The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has disclosed that the acumulated pension fund assets under the Contributory Penduon Scheme (CPS) have soared to N12.66 trillion as at 30 June 2021.

The Director-General, PenCom, Aisha Dahir-Umar who made this disclosure in her welcome remarks at the 2021 Journalists’ workshop organised by the Commission in Lagos noted that the number of registered contributors under the CPS has equally grown to 9.38 million with the period.

The DG who was represented by the Head, Corporate Communications in the commission Mr Peter Aghahowa equally hinted that the President Muhammadu Buhari, has approved the payment of 2.5 percent differential in the rate of employer pension contribution for FGN retirees and employees.
This, according to her resulted from the increase in the minimum pension contribution for employers from 7.5 percent to 10 percent, in line with Section 4(1) of the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2014.
She added that those payments would undoubtedly, boost the RSA balances of the beneficiaries towards better retirement benefits. The settlement of these outstanding accrued pension rights of verified and enrolled FGN retirees, she said, would result in reversing a major challenge that has lingered since 2014.

She as well assured that the commencement of payment of the reviewed monthly pension contribution rate by the Federal Government was another significant step in ensuring compliance with the PRA 2014.
Speaking further, she noted that most recent technological innovation introduced by the Commission was the in-house designed and developed online Enrolment Application, which has capabilities to register, verify and enroll prospective retirees of Treasury-Funded Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
“By the deployment of this new application, mass gathering of people has been avoided while enhancing convenience for the prospective retirees through a seamless enrolment process”, she assured.

She equally assured that notable technological innovation by the Commission was the design and deployment of the Retirement Savings Account (RSA) Transfer System (RTS), which was launched in November 2020.
“The RTS is a Computer Application developed by the Commission, through which RSA holders transfer their RSAs from one Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) to another. Indeed, the activation of the RSA transfer provision, which deepens individual choices, is a major milestone in the implementation of the CPS”, she acclaimed.

Dahir-Umar noted that emergence of the COVID-19 Pandemic necessitated a review of business processes across various organizations, noting that it has engendered socio-economic disruptions of the entire global order, with multifarious challenges in conducting hitherto routine activities.
Adding that it was therefore, imperative for the Commission to deepen technological innovation as it seeks to navigate through the challenges imposed by the pandemic.