The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has issued a new circular outlining guidelines for Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) regarding the management of their branches and service centres to accommodate the growing demand for pension services.
The circular, released on Monday evening, is aimed at improving the efficiency of PFAs’ service delivery at their branches and service centres.
Established by the Pension Reform Act of 2004, PenCom is the regulatory body overseeing pension matters in Nigeria, ensuring the effective administration and supervision of the national pension scheme.
PenCom’s new guidelines are designed to:
- Increase the presence of Licensed Pension Fund Administrators (LPFAs) across the country to better meet the rising demand for pension services.
- Enhance the efficiency of service delivery to Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders.
According to the circular, the following requirements apply to PFAs:
- A PFA must open a branch office in any state where it has 10,000 or more funded RSAs.
- Additionally, a PFA must open at least one service centre in a different location within a state if it has 20,000 or more funded RSAs.
- In states with at least 2,000 funded RSAs, a PFA must open a service centre.
- PFAs managing RSAs for employees of state governments participating in the contributory pension scheme must open a service centre in states with 1,000 or more funded RSAs.
- The lead PFA overseeing a state government’s contributory defined benefits scheme must establish a branch office in the state capital.
- Additionally, every PFA is required to have branch offices in at least two states within each geopolitical zone of Nigeria.
Both branch offices and service centres will be responsible for services such as contributor registration and enrollment, updating records, and collecting contribution schedules, among other duties.
