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Chuks Udo Okonta
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) and National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) have pledged to continue their dialogue on transfer of annuity assets from life insurers to Pension Fund Custodians (PFCs) in spite the initial deadline which elapsed four days ago.
The regulators in a joint statement issued today, maintained that their meeting will continue, pledging to apprise stakeholders of subsequent developments.
The bodies opined that they met on Tuesday, December 13, 2016, to discuss how to strengthen the administration of retiree life annuity as a mode of retirement benefit under the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2014.
“Specifically, the meeting reaffirmed the existence of life annuity as a mode of payment of retirement benefits under the PRA 2014. It further discussed the circular on strengthening the administration of retirement benefits under the PRA 2014, which was issued by PenCom to all licensed pension operators dated November 3, 2016. As well as the circular on review of regulations on retiree life annuity under the PRA 2014, which was issued by NAICOM to all annuity business operators, dated November 11, 2016,” the regulators added.
Whilst the dialogue continues, most stakeholders are confused as to what to do especially now that the three months deadline issued by PenCom for the transfer has elapsed.
Speaking recently, the Director-General, Lagos State Pension Commission (LASPEC) Mrs. Folashade Onanuga, was quick to inform the state’s retirees that the window is now open for those that would prefer Life Annuity services, for receipt of their monthly pension and that their Pension Fund Administrators (PFA) will now transfer the premium for the life annuity services to Pension Fund Custodians (PFC) appointed by the life Insurance companies, adding that in the last two months, only Programmed Withdrawal benefit option was tenable.
