How to access your pension benefits in two days

…as PenCom lowers approval hurdles

The pension regulator, the National Pension Commission (PenCom) has mandated pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) to ensure that approval and payment of pension benefit is concluded within two working days after documentation.

The Commission is hoping that the Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders, otherwise called contributors or retirees would have done data recapturing with their respective PFAs. This is the first stage of documentation, which will be followed with application for benefits.

PenCom had earlier invited all RSA holders to visit their PFAs to participate in Data Recapture Exercise (DRE), stating that the exercise is for both active contributors and retirees whose data have not been recaptured.

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According to the Commission, the DRE is in compliance with the directive of the Federal Government that all data generating organisations should harmonise their databases with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

It is also consistent with the need to have a credible database of all RSA holders in Nigeria, the Commission said.

PenCom on 12th March 2025 in a circular, said in furtherance of the Commission’s commitment to improving the efficiency of processes and ensuring service delivery to RSA holders, the Commission has deemed it imperative to allow PFAs to solely perform their statutory functions in the administration of benefits as stipulated under Section 55 (f) and (g) of the PRA 2014.

PenCom said, “effective from 1 June 2025, the Commission will no longer approve or grant “No Objections” to the following benefits applications before the PFAs process them for payments.

They are Programmed Withdrawal; Retire Life Annuity; Access to Benefits upon Temporary Loss of Employment; En Bloc Payments to retirees whose RSA balances cannot provide a reasonable pension; Pre-Pension Reform Act Benefits Payments to retirees in the Private Sector; Voluntary Contributions; Payments to RSA holders towards payment of equity contributions for residential mortgages; Payment of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) Contributions to retirees whose NSITF contributions were transferred to their RSAs; Changes in the periodicity of pension payments; Resolution of Errors from employers’ remittances of pension contributions for Private Sector and Self-funding Agencies; and Refunds to persons exempted from participating in the CPS by the PRA 2014; The processing, approval and payment of the above requests shall be concluded by the PFA within two (2) working days after completing the necessary documentations and instructing the appointed PFC to effect payment, with the Commission in copy.

According to the Commission, the medium for forwarding instructions to the PFC for processing payments shall be the Shared Folders deployed by the Commission, and the PFCs shall effect payment into the beneficiaries’ accounts within 24 hours upon receipt of instructions from the PFA.

However, not same with other benefits, PFAs shall continue to forward requests for approval to the Commission relating to depleted RSAs and death benefit applications in line with Section 8 (2) of the PRA 2014.

For RSA holders that were yet to go for DRE, the following documents will be needed.

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For active contributors, the following documents to complete the data recapture Staff Identity Card or any one of the following; National Driver’s License; or Permanent Voter’s Card; or International Passport (mandatory for non-Nigerians; Enrollment Slip issued by NIMC; and Birth Certificate or Sworn Affidavit of Age Declaration.

For retirees, who are either on programmed withdrawal or on annuity, they are expected to present National Driver’s License or any one of the following; Permanent Voter’s Card; or International Passport (mandatory for non-Nigerians); Enrollment Slip issued by NIMC; Letter of Retirement issued by the employer to the retiree.