ARM, Stanbic IBTC, Pension Alliance lead micropension enrollment

The Micro Pension Plan (MPP), which is aimed at bringing the informal sector employees into the pension net, recorded 80,419 contributors at the end of June 2022, with ARM Pension Managers Limited, Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers and Pension Alliance Limited leading other Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs).

Available data from the National Pension Commission (PenCom) revealed that the three PFAs registered 20,441, 12,377 and 6,899 contributors, respectively as of June.

Sigma Pension Managers Limited has not registered any contributor under the scheme as of June, the commission’s data also show.

“We have just started micro pension last month,” Dave Uduanu, managing director/CEO of Sigma Pensions Limited, told BusinessDay in a telephone interview. “We didn’t want to rush into it; so we have our strategy and we are vigorously pursuing it. So, I can confirm to you that we have registered a number of contributors now.”

Meanwhile, in the second quarter of 2022, 17 out of 18 PFAs registered a total number of 3,831 Micro Pension Contributors (MPC).

ARM Pension Managers (PFA) Limited, Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited and Pensions Alliance Limited registered the largest number of MPCs with 1,867, 642, and 287 respectively, while IEI-Anchor Pension Managers Limited, Premium Pensions Limited and Crusader Sterling Pensions Ltd had the least numbers registered contributors with 10, 8 and 5 respectively.

Read also: Micropensions: PenCom, operators go back to the drawing board for workable guideline

Wale Odutola, managing director/CEO of ARM Pensions, had said during an interview with BusinessDay earlier in the year that micro pension was the focus of operators in 2022.

He said the micro pension space offered significant room for growth because of the large number of Nigerians in the informal sector.

He, however, noted that the pension industry was still trying to understand the needs and behaviours of those in that sector.

“We found out that many of the people in the informal sector still have apathy towards formal savings and investment schemes because of past failures. We have also realised that we all need to reduce our costs to serve this segment for it to make commercial sense,” he said.

He said operators had also realised the need to incentivise the target market with some form of immediate benefits.

“These are some issues we have noticed, and the operators and the commission are working together to increase penetration in the micro pension space,” Odutola said.

Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited, Fidelity Pension Managers Limited and ARM Pension Managers (PFA) Limited received total contributions of N123.12 million, N36.76 million, and N32.17 million, representing 43.8 percent, 13.11 percent, and 11.5 percent of total contributions from MPCs, respectively as at 30 June 2022.

The total pension contributions received from MPCs stood at N280.78 million from 9,586 MPCs at the end of the second quarter of 2022.

A breakdown of the pension contributions received in Q2 2022 showed that ARM Pension Managers (PFA) Limited, Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited and Premium Pensions Limited had the highest contributions collected within the period with N6.73 million, N5.83 million and N3.43 million, respectively.

The PFAs with the lowest contributions were Crusader Sterling Pensions Limited, IEI-Anchor Pension Managers Limited and Leadway Pensure PFA Limited, with N90,000.00; N85,250.00 and N15,000.00, respectively.

First Guarantee Pensions Limited, Radix Pension Managers Limited and Sigma Pensions Limited did not receive any contributions from their registered MPCs during the quarter under review.

On contingent withdrawals, six PFAs processed and approved MPP withdrawals for 11 MPCs amounting to N1.68 million, bringing the total withdrawals to N22.36 million from 118 MPCs as at June 30, 2022.

In terms of conversions from MPP to CPS, a total of 33 MPCs converted from MPP to the mandatory Contributory Pension Scheme in Q2 2022 with N615,119.11 contribution, bringing the total conversion amount to N4.54 million from 361 MPCs as at June 30, 2022.