Ugochukwu is a Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holder with one of the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
He has been dissatisfied with the level of services and returns that he gets from his PFA, and so has been waiting on the pension transfer window to move to a new PFA.
When the transfer window was launched by the National Pension Commission (PenCom), he was happy but became worried that he does not have any cash at the moment to pay for the transfer.
But PenCom has said that embarking on transfer window is free and does not attract any cost to the RSA holder. So, for Ugocukwu, his fears have been allayed.
Following the launch of the pension transfer window by the National Pension Commission (PenCom) recently, over 2, 100 Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders have applied to move their pension accounts from their current Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) to a new one.
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The transfer window known as Retirement Savings Account Transfer System (RTS) was launched by PenCom on the 16th of November, 2020 in Abuja, in accordance with Section 13 of the Pension Reform Act, 2014 which allows contributors to move their Retirement Savings Account (RSA) through a transfer window from one Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) to another, provided that it is not more than once in a year.
Polycarp noted that, most of the pension contributors seeking a switch to a new PFAs were those who were not contented with the service delivery of their current pension fund handlers, a development, he said, will no doubt, enhance quality service delivery of the PFAs to their clients.
Explaining how the window operates, Polycarp Anyanwu of the PenCom said, the RTS has four quarters in a year, which are; 31st of March, 30th of June, 31st of September, and 31st of December in which contributors can change their PFAs once in a year, adding that, the over 2,100 applications received so far, would be processed for the 31st of December, 2020 window.
A month to the above mentioned dates, he said, the concerned pension fund operators must have submitted necessary documentation to the regulatory body, informing it of the amount leaving their kitty and the RSA holders concerned, so as to give ample time for PenCom, the affected PFAs and the receiving PFAs to plan ahead.
On the part of the contributors, he said, majorly, fingerprint, which serves as their consent, is a unique criteria to switch PFAs. Although, he expects some pension fund operators to be on the losing end and some proactive ones winning, he stressed that, the overall benefits, is to instill healthy competition among operators, which would in return lead to better service delivery and improved investment returns on pension assets.
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