National identity number compulsory for RSAs - PenCom

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has directed all Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders to provide their National Identity Number (NIN) to their fund managers.

In a new circular to Pension Fund Administrators, PenCom said the new development involved both active and retired RSA holders.

The directive conforms with the policy of the federal government of Nigeria that has made it mandatory that all Nigerians must have a National Identity Number. PenCom stated that to achieve the goal of all Nigerians having National Identity Numbers, all data generating agencies have been directed to harmonise their databases with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

By law, the NIMC has the mandate to implement the National identity system in Nigeria and the harmonisation by all data gathering agencies may be part of federal government’s strategy to have a clean National Identity System.

“To enable the pension industry comply, the National Pension Commission has Director General, National Pension Commission (PENCOM), Aisha Dahir-Umar directed all Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) to update the records of their clients,” PenCom stated.

Already, banks and some other financial institutions have started integrating NINs into bank accounts as they did with BVNs.

PenCom also advised RSA holders to approach their PFAs to provide their Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs), NIN as well as other needed biodata.

The latest move may be a golden opportunity for PFAs to clean up their databases to combat identity theft as well as fight fraud in the pension industry.

A clean database in the industry will also pave the way for the introduction of the transfer window that will enable RSA holders to switch accounts from one PFA to another to get better services.

Daily Trust also gathered that PFAs have started updating the biodata of RSA holders to comply with the new directive.