General
Stanbic IBTC Pensions Harps on Benefits of Data Recapture Exercise
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.
Mr 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, Mr 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 sanitize 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”, Mr Fajemisin added.
He stated that the pensions industry in Nigeria is being digitised to enable customers enjoy seamless services through various digital platform. 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 sanitize the pensions industry.
According to her, “After this industry sanitization 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.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Federal Ministry of Youth Development has expressed its readiness to support 150,000 young Nigerians with N110 billion.
The Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr Lanre Issa-Onilu, disclosed this on Thursday in Kano at the launch of the five nationwide enlightenment campaigns on government policies, national values and identities, security awareness and disaster preparedness.
He said over 600,000 students have so far benefited from the N59 million disbursed under the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) scheme.
The director general, who was represented by Mr Williams Dogo, Director, Legal Services of the agency, said that NELFUND was available to all qualified Nigerians in public tertiary institutions, noting that the sensitisation programme, with the theme Nationwide Sensitisation on Five Thematic Areas, was designed to deepen citizens’ knowledge of government initiatives.
The NOA boss explained that the campaign would highlight the presidential directive on flood mitigation, which provided for the release of N3 billion to each state in 2024 for drainage clearance and relocation of vulnerable communities.
He said that 700 schools had been renovated nationwide as an intervention to improve learning facilities in rural areas, stating that more than 15,000 new security personnel had been deployed nationwide to address diverse security challenges.
“It is our intention to carry out security awareness campaigns reaching no fewer than three million Nigerians in each state through media engagements, advocacy visits to traditional and religious leaders, rallies at markets and motor parks, as well as town hall meetings,” he said.
On national values, he said that reorientation campaign would focus on patriotism, unity and campaigns against extreme graduation practices that contradict cultural norms, adding that the campaign would also familiarise Nigerians with the current national anthem, which was changed by President Bola Tinubu.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Nigerians will have to cough out more money to obtain their international passports because the Nigeria Immigration Service has increased the fees.
In a statement signed on Thursday by the Public Relations Officer of the agency, ACI AS Akinlabi, it was disclosed that the new fees would take effect from Monday, September 1, 2025.
It was disclosed that the 32-page passport with a validity of five years will now to for N100,000 and the 64-page 10-year passport is now N200,000.
The immigration explained that the upward review of the prices was “to uphold the quality and integrity of the Nigerian passport.”
“The review which only affect passport application fees made in Nigeria,” it stressed, adding that, “Nigerian passport application fees made by Nigerians in the Diaspora remain unchanged at $150 for 32-page with 5-year validity and $230 for 64-page with 10-year validity.”
“The service reiterates its commitment to balancing quality service delivery with the need to ensure Passport services are accessible to all Nigerians,” the statement concluded.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
President Bola Tinubu on Thursday returned to Nigeria after travelling to Japan and Brazil for official functions.
He landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja in the early hours of today almost two weeks after he left the country through same route.
He was received by senior government officials, including the Minister of the FCT, Mr Nyesom Wike; the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mr Nuhu Ribadu; the Governor of Kaduna State, Mr Uba Sani; the Governor of Imo State, Mr Hope Uzodinma; and the Deputy Senate President, Mr Barau Jibrin; among others.
Before heading to Japan for the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD9) in Yokohama from August 20 to 22, the President, according to a statement by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, he had a stopover in Dubai.
Mr Tinubu precisely travelled out of Nigeria on Thursday, August 14, 2024, for the two-nation trip to Japan and Brazil.
After leaving Japan, he zoomed to Brazil to woo investors and held talks with the Brazilian leader, Mr Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
He was able to convince the country’s petroleum firm, Petrobras, to return to Nigeria after it left a few years ago. He also helped to enable a direct flight from Brazil to Nigeria.
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