PenCom paid N67.42bn as retirement benefits to pensioners in Q1  

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has said that Pension Fund Administrators paid N67.42 billion as retirement benefits to pensioners under the Contributory Pension Scheme in the first quarter of 2021. This was lower than the N90.99 billion paid in Q4 2020.

The disclosure is contained in the Q1 2021 report of the PenCom.

“A total of N67.42 billion was paid as retirement benefits in Q1 2021. This was lower than the N90.99 billion paid in Q4 2020 by N23.57 billion,” the report stated.

According to the report, the number of workers with pension accounts rose by 84,270 to 9.3 million as of the end of March 2021 from 9.22 million at the end of December 2020.

The report also added that the cumulative RSA registrations grew from 9,215,788 recorded in Q4, 2020 to 9,300,058 as of Q1, 2021, representing a 0.91 percent growth, which was mainly attributed to an increased level of compliance by the public and private sectors.

“As of Q1 2021, the ranking of PFAs by number of registered contributors showed a marginal growth in the market share of the bottom three PFAs to 1.60 percent in Q1 2021 from 1.5 percent in Q4 2020.

The bottom five PFAs recorded a slight increase in the number of registered RSAs from 4.10% in Q4 2020 to 4.20 per cent in Q1 2021.

In the same vein, the bottom 10 PFAs recorded a marginal increase from 15.20 percent in Q4 2020 to 15.30 percent in Q1, 2021,” it added.

PenCom said the market share of the top three decreased from 37.40 per cent in Q4 2020 to 37.30 percent in Q1 2021 while the market share of the top five PFAs declined from 53.20 per cent to 53.10 percent.

The market share of the top 10 PFAs declined from 78.40 per cent in Q4 2020 to 78.30 percent in Q1 2021.

“A further breakdown of the cumulative PFA registrations revealed that 15 PFAs had registered less than 500,000 RSAs each while the remaining seven PFAs had registered more than 500,000 RSAs each as at the end of the Q1 2021,” it said.