TheCable

The Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOP) says contributors will be unable to claim their retirement benefits if they do not participate in the data recapture process.

Addressing journalists in Lagos on Wednesday, Wale Odutola, PENOP’s head of communication and managing director of ARM Pension, said the data recapture process was mandated by the National Pension Commission (PENCOM).

“At present, we have about 9 million contributors but among that figure, we have cases of people having multiple pins.

“So the whole idea of this data recapture is to manage the industry such that people are uniquely identified so that when we pay, we are sure that we are paying the right people.

“With the recapture, we are going to use the national identification number (NIN) as the unique identifier for contributors. The NIN is now linked to BVN so there is no risk that we will pay the wrong person.

“It’s a major project and everyone has to be re-enrolled. It took us quite a while to enrol the 9 million people that we have so imagine the work we have to do to do it all over again.”

When asked if there would be a deadline for the data recapture process, Odutola said a deadline could be deployed.

Using BVN registration as an example, Ronke Adedeji, PenOP president and managing director of Leadway Assurance, said: “Banks also had to use a deadline to enforce compliance so we might do that too.”

“Because we have a lot of people to capture, we are considering engaging a third-party service provider to fast-track the process. So to everyone out there, the earlier you do it, the better.”