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The National Pension Commission, PenCom, has revealed that it paid out N117.89 billion as retirement benefits to retirees in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Data from PenCom's quarterly report indicates a 22.88% increase compared to the N95.94 billion disbursed in the third quarter of 2023, Q3’23.
PenCom attributed the increase to higher lump-sum and annuity premium payments made during the period under review. Regarding programmed withdrawal mode, the Commission stated that Pension Fund Administrators submitted 6,598 requests for retirees to draw down on their pension.
Out of these requests, the Commission approved 6,592, while six were rejected due to incorrect computations of lump sum or monthly pensions.
Of the 6,592 retirees whose benefits were approved, 2,860 were from the private sector and 3,732 were from the public sector. A total lump sum of N34.38 billion was approved for these retirees, with a monthly pension amounting to N488.19 million.
Furthermore, Retirement Savings Account (RSA) membership saw an increase with 88,213 new RSAs registered and associated PINs issued to employees across sectors.
A breakdown of the data shows that Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers maintained a dominant market share of 24%, with 21,212 contributors registered.
This was followed by Access Pensions Limited at 19.9% with 17,573 new contributors registered. ARM Pension Managers Ltd, Leadway Pensure PFA Ltd, and Premium Pension Ltd followed with 9.4%, 8.1%, and 6% of the new registrations during the quarter respectively.
The top five PFAs collectively held about 67.39% of the new RSAs registered in Q4 2023, while the bottom five PFAs recorded an aggregate of 5.38% of the 88,213 new RSAs registered.
