PenCom moves N51.98bn pension assets from NSTIF

The National Pension Commission has said the N51.98bn outstanding pension assets in the custody of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund have been transferred to Trustfund Pensions Plc.The Director-General, PenCom, Mr. Muhammad Ahmad, disclosed this to our correspondent on Thursday.Under the old pension scheme, NSITF managed the defined benefit pension scheme for private sector workers in the country and accumulated enormous resources, which experts said were not properly managed.However, the contributory pension scheme has liberalised the market with the licensing of private pension fund administrators and custodians.As a result, the new scheme made provision for the pension assets of individuals with NSITF to be transferred to Trustfund.As part of PenComs continued efforts to ensure the transfer of outstanding pension assets from NSITF to the custodians of Trustfund Pensions, assets worth N51.98bn or 94.73 per cent of the total N54.87bn assets, have been effectively transferred, Ahmad said.The director-general also said that Trustfund PFA was granted a no objection to conduct a follow up revalidation exercise for existing NSITF scheme pensioners, who missed the earlier exercise conducted in 2009.He noted that two different pension schemes, the Pay-As-You-Go and the contributory pension scheme, were currently in operation in the public service.According to him, the old pension scheme covered pensioners existing before the Pension Reform Act, 2004 and workers exempted from the Defined Contributory Pension Scheme.The scheme, he explained, was being administered by civil service, military, police, as well as the customs, immigration and prisons pension departments.Funding for the pension departments, he added, was from budgetary provisions by the Federal Government.According to him, the CPS is based on individual retirement savings accounts being managed by the PFAs and funding for the scheme is through monthly deductions from employees salaries and equivalent contributions by employers. Ahmad said, Under the new system, pension funds are not left with the employers but are credited directly to the individual RSAs of the beneficiaries and none of the employer, the commission and even the PFA have access to the money.The PenCom boss explained that the CPS had inbuilt safeguards to protect the pension fund from all forms of misappropriation with the functions of the custodians and administrators clearly delineated.While the PFCs take custody of the pension funds, he said the PFAs handled the administrative aspect.
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