Retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) who could not be entitled to monthly pensions have withdrawn N20.2billion, their money through their respective Retirement Savings Accounts (RSA).
According to the information from the office of pension commission disclosed that foreign nationals ready to return to their countries after making voluntary contributions under the CPS have similarly opted out of the scheme.
The figures obtained from the National Pension Commission on ‘en bloc and foreigners benefits’ revealed that the two categories of workers withdrew a total of N20.26bn from the growing assets under the management of the operators.
It was also discovered that most of the retirees affected were those whose employers (private, state and federal) had been deducting their monthly salary but not remitting the deducted amount to the Pension Fund Administrators.
The report stated, “The commission granted approval for the payment of the entire RSA balances of the categories of retirees whose RSA balances were N550,000 or below and considered insufficient to procure programmed withdrawal or an annuity of a reasonable amount over an expected lifespan. This also included foreign nationals who decided to return to their home countries after making voluntary contributions under the CPS.”
The information further shown the contributors comprise private sector employees, federal and state workers who did not have above N550,000 in their savings as of the time they reached 50 years and met the conditions of retirement under the CPS.
Amehnews recall that the Pension Reform Act made it clear that retirees could only access their monthly pensions either by subscribing to programmed withdrawal administered by the PFAs or annuity sold by the life insurance companies.
Therefore, to continue with any of these policies, retirees must have more than N550,000 in their RSA or the total balance would be returned to them.
In the same vein, amid the hardship of recession in 2016, insurers helped restore businesses and protect families of insured Nigerians through payment of claims for losses worth N119.5 billion, a report by the Nigeria Insurers Association (NIA) has shown.
The amount was paid by 58 insurance companies that are members of the association. They comprise 15 specialist life insurance companies, 29 non-life insurance companies, 15 composite insurance companies and two reinsurance companies.
A breakdown of the report shows that the 29 insurance companies offering non-life business paid N57.7 billion claims in the year under review, while the Life business paid N61.87 billion.
It also showed that the claims paid by the Non-Life companies increased from N54.65 billion in 2015 to N57.7 billion in 2016, representing an increase of 5.69 per cent while the claims for Life companies increased from 50.5 per cent in 2015 to N61.8 billion in 2016, representing an increase of 15.84 per cent
