Financial Struggles: Pensioners Accessing Their Retirement Savings

Summary of Pension Withdrawals in Q1’24:

The number of workers making voluntary withdrawals from their Pension savings increased by 87.6% in the first quarter of 2024.

Specifically, the number of workers making withdrawals rose to 1,302 in Q1’24 from 694 in the previous quarter (Q4’23).

The value of funds withdrawn from voluntary contributions increased by 160% to N3.9 billion in Q1’24 from N1.5 billion in the previous quarter.

Out of the total workers making withdrawals, 1,259 were from the private sector, and 43 were from the public sector.

Voluntary Contributions are extra funds workers can choose to add to their mandatory pension contributions or save separately for retirement.

The Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2014 allows employees to make voluntary contributions to their Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) to enhance their retirement benefits.

The report stated: “Approvals were granted to 1,302, RSA holders to access N3.9 billion of their voluntary contributions during the quarter under review while 24 were rejected due to incorrect computations.

1,259 RSA holders whose benefits were approved were from the private sector, while 43 were from the public sector.”

Requests for Mortgage Access:

1,390 RSA holders requested access to up to 25% of their RSA balances for payment of equity contributions for residential mortgages.

1,234 requests amounting to N10.5 billion were approved.
156 requests were rejected due to incorrect documentation.
Out of the approved applicants:
379 were from the private sector.
855 were from the public sector.
New RSA Registrations:

89,061 new RSAs were registered across different sectors by the end of the quarter on 31 March 2024.

RSA Registrations by PFAs:

Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers had the largest market share with 23.9% and 21,288 new contributors.

Access Pensions Limited followed with 22.5% and 20,042 new contributors.
ARM Pension Managers Ltd, Leadway Pensure PFA, and Premium Pension had 8.4%, 7.1%, 7.0% respectively of the new registrations.

The top five PFAs collectively held 68.8% of the new registrations, while the bottom five PFAs accounted for 4.3% of the 89,061 new RSAs registered in Q1’24.