A total of 48,543 pension contributors switched their Pension Fund Administrator in 2021, bringing the total number of RSA transfers since the opening of the transfer window to 51,342 contributors.
This is contained in the quarterly RSA transfer report, released by the National Pension Commission (PenCom).
The National Pension Commission opened the transfer window in November 2020 allowing RSA holders to move their accounts from one PFA to another.
Specifically, section 13 of the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2014, states that a Retirement Savings Account (RSA) Holder may transfer his RSA from one Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) to another. It also specifies that such transfer should not be more than once a year.
The RSA transfer window, between November 2020 and December 2021 has enabled over 50,000 contributors to switch to their preferred PFA. This has increased the competition in the industry, as PFAs are forced to best themselves by printing impressive ROIs and improving their consumer experience in order to ensure customer retention.
A breakdown of the report shows that 12,824 contributors transferred their accounts in Q4 2021, representing a marginal decline compared to the 12,872 contributors who switched in the previous quarter.
Meanwhile, the 22 listed PFAs printed an average ROI of 6.42% in 2021 as the industry asset under management gained N1.12 trillion to hit a record high of N13.42 trillion. In the same vein, Nigeria’s pension penetration rate rose to 14% as of the end of the year after PFAs registered 313,339 new contributors.
What you should know about RSA transfer
According to the regulations guiding the transfer of RSA account obtained from the National Pension Commission, RSA transfers shall be carried out on a quarterly basis from the first quarter to the last quarter of the year.
Transfer requests shall be processed on the basis of their Effective Transfer Dates (ETDs), which shall be the last day of the last month of each Transfer Quarter namely, 31st March, 30th June, 30th September and 31st December.
RSA Transfer requests received in the first two months of a Transfer Quarter shall be assigned the ETD of the current Transfer Quarter, while requests received in the third month of a Transfer Quarter shall be assigned the ETD of the next Transfer Quarter.
An RSA Holder will be eligible for a subsequent RSA transfer after 365 days from the date of his/her last approved RSA transfer, irrespective of whether it is a leap year or not.
It is also worth noting that the RSA transfer from one PFA to another is free of charge to the RSA holder.
