Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar
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Chuks Udo Okonta
The Micro Pension Plan (MPP) is gaining popularity as more people are leveraging it to plan their activities and future retirement.
According to data obtained from the National Pension Commission (PenCom), during the fourth quarter of 2020, 20 Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) registered 3,663 contributors under the Micro Pension Plan and a total sum of N25,024,528.08 was remitted to the Retirement Saving Accounts (RSAs) of the contributor within the same period.
PenCom noted that in terms of withdrawals from the contingent portion of the contributions, six PFAs processed and approved requests amounting to N880,521.29 from 11 MPP participants during the review period.
The Director-General, PenCom, Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar, said the implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) has greatly impacted the economy, stressing that the major visible areas of this impact are the economic and social spheres and that the pension assets, is slowly but surely changing Nigeria’s financial landscape and by extension, the course and pace of our socio-economic development.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Achor Actuarial Services Limited, Dr. Pius Apere, proffered ways the Micro Pension Plan (MPP) could be enhanced to enable informal sector players maximize inherent gains.
For Apere, the micro pension plan should be taken to the grassroots, He called for deploy of robust technology to enable people access the services, stressing that PFAs are required to establish efficient micro-pension administration and delivery platforms to mobilize micro-pension contributors at the grassroots. “In fact, the timing of implementation and robustness of IT infrastructure by PFAs as specified by PenCom to meet the expected increase in micro-pension contributors in the short term may be a concern,” he said.
He urged PenCom to carry out adequate supervision and periodic reviews to monitor and ensure an efficient and effective implementation of the MPP, adding that there is a lot of work to do by the regulator and PFAs in order to bring confidence into the pension system and that a network of branch operations by PFAs with high standard of service delivery will help to bring confidence in the system.
He noted that there is high tendency for micro-pension contributors to operate RSA as a bank savings account because of the over flexibility of the contingent withdrawal option provided in the Guidelines. “For instance, the Micro-pension Contributor may withdraw the total balance of the contingent portion of his/her RSA including all accrued investment income thereto, making the first withdrawal 3 months after the initial contribution and subsequent withdrawals once in a week from the balance of the contingent portion of the RSA. In view of the above, the contingent withdrawal option would create administrative hassle for the PFAs because the amount of records keeping required would actually lead to incurring high administrative costs and processing time.
“The above administrative hassle could be avoided or reduced if at the point of registration micro-pension contributors are asked to complete a weekly or monthly income and expenditure planner which would indicate and/or guide how much they can conveniently safe in a week or month. The forgoing is also in line with section 6.3(d) of the micro-pension guidelines (“The amount of contribution shall be dependent on the Micro-pension Contributor’s pension aspiration and financial capacity”),” he posited.
On risks associated with the MMP, he said Section 6.5.3 (ix) of micro-pension guidelines relating to Guaranteed Minimum Pension (i.e. Micro-pension Contributors are entitled to Guaranteed Minimum Pension) has not only created a unique selling propositions for the PFAs (as explained above) but also a high expectation for all micro-pension contributors to benefit from GMP at retirement if their RSA balances are too low to afford a decent living in retirement.
This expectation, he said is high in the minds of all micro-pension contributors when joining the micro-pension plan despite section 6.5.3 (x) of micro-pension guidelines stating that (“Where the total amount contributed is below the amount required to qualify for Minimum Pension Guarantee, the Micro-pension retiree shall be paid enbloc in accordance with the Regulation for the Administration of Retirement and Terminal Benefits”).
“Furthermore, with the contingent withdrawal option, it is more likely for micro-pension contributors to have lower RSA balances at retirement than the mandatory contributors. Thus, the micro-pension retirees will be aggrieved when they are disqualified from GMP at retirement and their expectations are not met leading to a reputational risk for the entire pension industry. This is because the micro-pension contributors would expect same eligibility criteria for GMP (as stated section 84(1) of PRA 2014) to be used for both micro-pension contributors and mandatory contributors,” he added.
He maintained that as far as the micro-pension contributors are eligible to guaranteed minimum pension (GMP), it is not likely that the pension protection fund established to finance the GMP as stated in section 82 of PRA 2014 will be sufficient to cover the liability. This, he said is mainly because of the number of micro-pension retirees that would qualify for GMP benefit will be higher than expected due to the unique selling proposition (USP) discussed above, leading a strain on the PPF.
On investment of micro-pension fund/assets, Apere noted that considering the facts, as stated in sections 6.3 (c) and 6.5.2 (iii) of the micro-pension guidelines, that “every contribution shall be split into two comprising 40 per cent for contingent withdrawal and 60 per cent for retirement benefits” and the total balance of the contingent portion of micro-pension contributor’s RSA including all accrued investment income can be withdrawn on a regular basis (once a week), the investment of the contingent withdrawal portion is likely to be only in cash and/or money market instruments while the retirement benefits withdrawal option will follow the Fund V – (micro-pension fund) in the multi-fund structure.
He stressed that investment guidelines (Fund V – micro-pension fund in the multi-fund structure) for micro-pension contributors do not consider their risks profile (in terms of age and duration) until they have the opportunity to be converted to mandatory contribution status, whereby “At conversion, the PFA shall move the Micro-pension Contributor’s RSA balance to the appropriate fund under the Multi-fund Structure”. The above, he noted would discourage a young and financially literacy employee working in the informal sector to join the micro-pension plan if has alternative ways of meeting his retirement needs.
