PENCOM FINALLY RELEASES GUIDELINES FOR WITHDRAWAL OF RSA FUNDS.

The Nigeria pension commission PENCOM has released guidelines for the withdrawal of funds in line with the provision of the Pension Act 2014. This will enable Retirement Services Account (RSA) holders to make use of their pension fund balances to make acquisitions of their primary homes. The the Director General of National Pension Commission, Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, said "the change was made to allow for funds to be accessed in a manner that is safe”. Currently, Nigeria’s contributory pension system is a function of the employee’s salary- 10 per cent paid by the employer and eight per cent paid by the employee. One of the primary issues surrounding pensions in Nigeria is the payment of the accrued rights, which are pensioners who have already retired with a hybrid of this contributory pension system and accrued rights from their previous careers and the federal government, she said he beauty of the contributory pension system, you don’t have to run after anyone to pay your dues, you receive quarterly statements as soon as you retire, your money is paid immediately.” Amazu Anohu said She made a distinguish comparison between the old system of accrued rights and the current one, those contributions are “safe and intact” and they are just waiting for the accrued rights to come in so that the computation can be done on a global basis. “Those who have retired on the contributory system don’t have that problem.”