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PenCom transfers N8.81bn NSITF contribution to PFAs

By on March 9, 2015

The National Pension Commission has transferred the sum of N8.81bn contributed by workers under the National Social Insurance Trust Fund to their respective Pension Fund Administrators.

A report obtained by our correspondent on Friday said the money was specifically transferred into the workers’ individual Retirement Savings Accounts.

The report is titled ‘PenCom’s transfer of National Provident Fund and NSITF contribution to members’ RSAs.

The commission said after the review of the applications, the commission conveyed concurrence for the transfer of N125.07m into the RSAs of 1,740 applicants during the third quarter of 2014, from an initial transfer of N8.69bn in the second quarter of the same year.

It stated, “During the third quarter of 2014, the commission reviewed and conveyed concurrence for the transfer of the sum of N293.81m to PFAs of 4,739 NSITF contributors, while 885 applications were rejected due to incomplete documentation, zero balances and duplication of applications.

“To date, the sum of N8.69bn has been transferred to the PFAs of 120,081 members who contributed to the former NPF/NSITF pension scheme.”

PenCom said in the third quarter of 2014, it received 2,260 applications for the transfer of contributions amounting to N185.82m from the defunct NPF/NSITF pension scheme to the RSAs of contributors.

It noted that 141 applications were rejected due to factors such as incomplete documentation, zero balances and duplicated applications.

According to the commission’s guidelines for the transfer of NSITF’s contribution to employees’ RSA, the contribution represents the amount remitted to the National Provident Fund and/or the NSITF pension schemes by registered employers on behalf of their employees covering the period of January, 1962 to June, 2004.

It described the assets of the NSITF scheme as all pension fund assets that were to be transferred by the NSITF to Trustfund following the commencement of the Pension Reform Act, regardless of whether they had been transferred to the custodians of Trustfund or not.

The Pension Reform Act provided that contributions into the NSITF scheme together with accrued income should be transferred into members’ RSAs after the expiry of the five years moratorium, from July, 2009.

The Act also provided that PenCom should supervise the transfer.

In 2010, PenCom amended the guidelines which sought to provide a general guidance on how the transfer of the NSITF contributions into the RSAs of employees should be effected and it specified the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder.

The guidelines stated that the NSITF should provide the database and other supporting records needed by the Trustfund to establish the contributions of members of the NSITF Fund.

It added that the Trustfund would confirm the correctness of individual member’s contributions from the database.

In line with the provisions of the Pension Reform Act, the Trustfund would create an account for each member into which the contribution would be credited.

These accounts, it added, would be held in a separate database, which would, among others, contain necessary information such as: employer’s name and address, the NSITF registration number, the beginning and the end of year contribution, amount contributed, name of the PFA and personal identification number.

It added that the Trustfund should send statement of contributions to all members of NSITF Fund.

Members and employers are responsible for checking the correctness of their contributions and raise objection, if any.

 

[Punch]