Since the National Pension Commission (PenCom) opened the transfer window in 2020, 63,728 workers in the Contributory Pension Scheme who were unhappy with their Pension Fund Administrators have switched pension companies. According to data collected from PenCom, contributors moved ₦226.98 billion to new PFAs of their choice.
In the fourth quarter of 2020, PenCom revealed that 2,799 aggrieved contributors transferred ₦18.9 billion, while in the first quarter of 2021, 12,681 transferred ₦47.78 billion.
Aggrieved contributors left their PFAs in the second and third quarters of 2021 and transferred ₦35.89 billion and ₦45.56 billion, respectively, while in the fourth quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, 12,874 and 12,336 workers left their former PFAs and transferred ₦42.49 billion and ₦36.36 billion, respectively.
A Retirement Savings Account holder may move his RSA from one PFA to another, according to Section 13 of the Pension Reform Act 2014. The Act further stated that such a move should only happen once a year.
In November 2020, PenCom launched the transfer window, allowing contributors to move between PFAs of their choice.
The RSA transfer window was opened once PenCom determined that the necessary IT infrastructure was in place to support the transaction.
The procedure was completed in June 2019 with the implementation of an Enhanced Contributor Registration System (ECRS) for the pension industry, according to the regulator.
The ECRS, according to the pension regulator, has stringent validations, controls, and data requirements that will ensure the pension industry’s data integrity.
It stated that upgrading RSA holders’ information to satisfy the ECRS criteria was a requirement for RSA transfers.
It further stated that anyone who registered with various PFAs between the start of the Contributory Pension Scheme and June 2019 was required to be recaptured through the Data Recapture Exercise (DRE)
