The National Pension Commission has ordered Pension Fund Administrators to temporarily waive the National Identity Number that was a mandatory requirement for retirees to get their benefits following mounting complaints from retirees.
It stated this in a circular to all licensed PFAs which was obtained by our correspondent on.
The notice, titled ‘Circular for waiver of some documents required for the smooth processing of retirement benefits during the period of COVID-19 lockdown,’ was signed by the Head, Surveillance Department, PenCom, Ehimeme Ohioma.
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It said, “The attention of the National Pension Commission has been drawn to the challenges being experienced by retirees in providing some required documents for processing of their benefits due to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“Accordingly, it has become necessary for the commission to issue the following guidance to operators for the processing of retirement benefits during this period.”
The waived requirements listed by the commission are the Retiree Indemnity Form and the National Identity Number.
Explaining the indemnity form further, it stated, “PFAs will recall that this form was deployed for only FGN voluntary retirees in order to forestall the duplication of pension benefits payment.
“Please, note that respective courts have implemented alternative measures in respect of all their activities, including the functions undertaken by the Commissioner for Oaths.
“Therefore, voluntary retirees shall explore alternative windows available in respective courts to obtain the endorsement of the Commissioner for Oaths on the retiree indemnity form.”
On the NIN, it stated, “Provision of NIN is hereby waived for retirees for the data recapture exercise.
“PFAs are required to deploy measures to obtain NIN from their clients within three months of lifting the lockdown.”
PenCom had mandated all workers under the Contributory Pension Scheme to produce their NINS as part of their pension requirements since 2018.
It directed all PFAs to update the records of their clients.
Consequently, all Retirement Savings Account holders, both active and retired, were required to approach their PFAs to provide their NINs and Bank Verification Numbers, as well as other mandatory biodata information, to gain access to their pensions.