…As Job Losses Rate Heightens
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has reported that it approved the disbursement of N14.2 million to 8,651 Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders who temporarily lost their jobs due to the current economic whirlwinds in the first quarter of this year.
The commission, in its just published First Quarter 2024 Report, indicated that the support reflected its commitment to its statutory mandate to alleviate the financial challenges of the affected RSA holders and that the disbursements on the average showed that each beneficiary got about N1.64 million.
According to the commission, in the quarter under review, a total of 8,702 RSA holders applied to access 25% of RSA savings due to temporary loss of jobs, out of which 8,651 requests were approved while 51 of the applications were turned down because the applicants were above 50 years of age.
The PenCom reported that of the approved applications, 8,167 RSA holders were from the organized private sector while 484 were from the public service sector.
The report reads, inter alia: “A total of 8,702 RSA holders requested to access 25% of their RSA balances due to temporary loss of employment. Out of that, 8,651 RSA holders’ requests were approved, while fifty-one (51) were rejected because their ages were above 50 years.
“Out of the 8,651 applicants whose benefits were approved, 8,167 were from the private sector while the remaining 484 were from the public sector. The sum of N14,203.04 million was approved for the 8,651 RSA holders under the age of 50 years”, the commission added.
Available data on the commission’s disbursements since inception to RSA holders showed that as the end of the first quarter this year, it had disbursed a total of N238.19 billion for 501,807 requests, representing an increase of 6.34% higher than the N223.89 billion it disbursed as of the end of December (Q4) 2023.
A further analysis of the data reflected that the commission had since inception received a total of 518,850 requests out of which 501,807 were approved, representing about 97% approval rate, compared to the 17,403 requests that were rejected due to non-compliance of the RSA holders’ with the disbursement guidelines.
