By Moshood Ayeni
The Nigerian Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) has put in place modalities to allow Retirement Savings Account (RSA) contributors to move their RSAs from one Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) to another in what is known as the Transfer Window (TW).
The TW opens at the end of every quarter, which means that RSA holders have the opportunity to move to a PFA of choice at 4 different Transfer Window openings within a year.
However, RSA holders are allowed to move only once in every 365 days. The implication of this is that if a RSA holder accesses the TW in any particular quarter of a year (Q1, Q2, Q3 or Q4), he or she will not have the opportunity to move to another PFA until after one year of transferring to the current PFA. Therefore, if someone moves, for instance in Q1 of 2021, that person will not be able to change to another PFA until after Q1 in 2022.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO IF YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY TRANSFERRED YOUR RSA TO ANOTHER PFA?
Having made a successful transfer of RSA in a particular quarter, the RSA holder should ensure that he or she carries the employer along. This is VERY necessary because, once the RSA has been moved to the new PFA, subsequent pension contributions should not be made to the old PFA but rather to the new PFA.
If the employer is not aware of this change, they might erroneously remit subsequent pension contributions of the RSA holder to the former PFA. This situation is not good for the RSA holder as it will create issues for him or her in the future, one of which is missing pension contributions.
It is therefore very important that the RSA holder informs the employer or whoever is in charge of pension remittance of this change of PFA.
WHEN SHOULD THIS BE DONE?
The notification is necessary immediately the RSA has been successfully transferred. When an RSA has been successfully moved in a particular quarter, the next pension remittance will be made to the new PFA in the following month after the quarter. See illustration below.
ILLUSTRATION
Let us do a quick illustration.
Mr. A has successfully transferred his RSA account from ABC PFA to XYZ PFA in Q1 of 2021 (i.e 31 March 2021).
This means that Mr. A’s pension contributions going forward (from April 2021) should be paid to XYZ PFA, the new PFA. If Mr. A did make the transfer in Q2 (i.e. June 30) his next pension payment from July should be made to his new PFA.
See table below:
| Transfer Window | New PFA Remittance |
| Quarter 1 (31 Mar) | April |
| Quarter 2 (30 June) | July |
| Quarter 3 (30 Sept) | October |
| Quarter 4 (31 Dec) | January (of the following year) |
Mr. A should do the following immediately:
a. Inform his employer/finance/payroll department of this new change in PFA
b. Submit the Name and details of his new PFA (XYZ PFA) to 1 above
Please note that Mr. A should not worry about the RSA PIN as his old PIN is still valid. RSA PIN will not change even when you change PFA.
