September 13, (THEWILL) – The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has raised an alarm, over the increasing cash withdrawals by sacked workers from their pension contributions Fund.
PenCom in a report, released on Monday, said such withdrawals jumped by 17.5 percent to N6.65 billion in the second quarter of 2022, Q2’22, from N5.66 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2021.
The Pension Reform Act 2014 permits the payment of 25 percent of pension contribution to Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders under the age of 50 years, who are sacked (disengaged) from work and unable to secure another job within four months.
“The Commission granted approval for the payment of N6,645.54 million (being 25% of their Retirement Savings Account, RSA, balances) to 9,250 RSA holders under the age of 50 years, who were disengaged from employment and unable to secure another job within four months in Q2’22.
“This is against the payment of N5,661.68 million to 9,517 RSA holders under the age of 50 years, who were disengaged from work and unable to secure jobs within four months in Q1’22”, the report noted,
While the total pension contributions remitted to individual RSAs in Q2 2022 stood at 238.75 billion, the report explained that “Out of this total, the public sector accounted for 136.79 billion or 57.29%, while the private sector contributed 101.96 billion or 42.71%. The cumulative pension contributions from inception to the end of the second quarter of 2022 amounted to N8.01 trillion, which is an increase from N7.77 trillion as at the end of Q1 2022.
“A total number of 3,831 Micro Pension Contributors (MPC) were registered during the period under review by 17 out of 18 Pension Fund Administrators bringing the total number registered to 80,419, as at June, 2022.
“The total Pension Contributions received from MPCs in Q2 2022 was 22,193,664.59. This brings the total Pension Contributions received to 280,780,481.42 from 9,586 MPCs as at 30 June 2022.”
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