By Benjamin Omoike 

In order to enhance seamless operations and improve customers’ experience, Stanbic IBTC Pensions Managers Limited, has enjoined employers to ensure that their employees participate in the on-going Data Recapture Exercise being undertaken for the company’s enrollees. 

Speaking at the Stanbic IBTC Pension Employers’ Forum held recently in Abuja, Mr. Eric Fajemisin, Chief Executive, Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited (SIPML), urged employees to always update their information with their Pension Fund Administrators to facilitate easy access to their retirement benefits.

Fajemisin stressed that organisations should encourage their employees to leverage the Enhanced Contributor Registration System, newly deployed by the National Pension Commission, to ensure that their data was up to date.

The Data Recapture Exercise was introduced to enable Pension Fund Administrators obtain complete and accurate data of all Retirement Savings Account holders (both active and retired), in line with the provisions of Section 23 (e) of the Pension Reform Act 2014.

The 2019 edition of the Stanbic IBTC Employers’ Forum had earlier held in Lagos and Port Harcourt on October 29 and November 7 respectively. 

In Lagos, Fajemisin, who was represented by the Executive Director, Business Development Directorate, SIPML, Mrs. Nike Bajomo, stressed that the importance of data cannot be overemphasised in the pension industry as data is currently being used to sanitise the industry.

He said: “If there was a golden thread that ties discussions in the pensions industry today, it is integrity. It is at the heart of the most of the changes that are taking place in the industry and its importance cannot be overemphasised.”

He, however, lamented that some workers take part in the Data Recapture Exercise only when they are close to retirement, or after they have retired, thereby making the process a bit cumbersome for them.

‘The Data Recapture Exercise has been a reoccurring decimal in many of the conversations that we have had this year. We are glad that some organisations had been successfully on-boarded to the Enhanced Contribution Registration System,” Fajemisin added.

He stated that the pensions industry in Nigeria is being digitised to enable customers enjoy seamless services through various digital platforms. 

Speaking in the same vein, the Acting Director General, National Pension Commission (PenCom), Hajia Aisha Dahir-Umar, stressed that the Data Recapture Exercise is very critical because it speaks to the integrity of the pension industry.

Dahir-Umar, who was represented by the Deputy Zonal Head, PenCom, South-West Zonal Office, Mr. Sola Adeseun, added that the commission intends to use the data recapture exercise to effectively sanitise the pensions industry.

According to her, “After this industry sanitisation is done, we will ensure that the Transfer Credit System, otherwise known as the transfer window, where RSA holders can easily change their PFAs, would become operational in the first quarter of 2020.”

Since it was introduced, membership of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), had grown from 6.9 million subscribers in June 2014 to 8.85 million subscribers as of September 2019.

Stanbic IBTC Employers’ Forum is an interactive forum where challenges and trends in the industry are brought to the front burner. It is also a platform to explore possible ways, options and opportunities to strengthen the Nigerian pension industry.