All Posts in "Month: September 2022"

Pencom approves Guidelines on accessing RSA balance for payment of equity contribution for residential mortgage by RSA Holders

By Favour Nnabugwu
In it’s efforts to make sure that the desires of stakeholders and the general public hold sway, the National Pension Commission (PenCom) has approved the issuance and immediate implementation of the Guidelines on Accessing Retirement Savings Account, RSA balance towards payment of equity contribution for residential mortgage by RSA Holders.
The Guidelines also specifies that married couples, who are RSA holders, are eligible to make a joint application, subject to individually satisfying the eligibility requirements
PenCom in a statement released yesterday saif the approval is in line with Section 89 (2) of the Pension Reform Act 2014 (PRA 2014), which allows RSA holders to use a portion of their RSA balance towards payment of equity for residential mortgage.
Highlighting some of issues in the Guidelines:
1. Eligibility: The Guidelines cover pension contributors in active employment, either as a salaried employee or as a self-employed person. Interested RSA holders (applicants) must meet the following conditions:
I.  Have an Offer Letter for the property duly signed by the property owner
and verified by the Mortgage Lender.
ii. The RSA of the applicant shall have both employer and employee’s
mandatory contributions for a cumulative minimum period of 60 months (five years).
iii. A Contributor under the Micro Pension Plan (MPP) is also eligible,
provided he/she has made contributions for at least 60 months (five years) prior to the date of his/her application.
iv. RSA Holders that have less than three years to retirement are not eligible
For married couples, the Guidelines state
vi. RSA holders, if registered before 1 July 2019, must have their records
updated through the RSA data recapture exercise.
vii.Application for equity contribution for residential mortgage shall be in
person and not by proxy.
2. Maximum Withdrawal Percentage: The maximum amount to be withdrawn
shall be 25% of the total mandatory RSA balance as at the date of application,
irrespective of the value of equity contribution required by the mortgage lender.
Where 25% of a contributor’s RSA balance is not sufficient for payment as
equity contribution, RSA holders may utilise the contingency portion of their
voluntary contributions (if any).
3. Eligibility criteria for mortgage lender: To qualify as a Mortgage Lender for
this purpose, the company must be licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN), comply with the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and have valid
Pension Clearance Certificate (PCC). The Commission shall publish names of
the eligible mortgage lenders on its website.
The Commission, hereby, invites interested RSA holders to contact their PFAs for more information and guidance. The complete Guidelines can be found on www.pencom.gov.ng.
Patoma Admin by — September 23, 2022 in Pension 0
Nigeria, Egypt, 5 other countries record highest growth in pension fund assets

By Favour Nnabugwu
 
Nigeria, Egypt and five other countries in Africa have recorded the highest pension fund assets as global pension fund assets grew by over 10% to $38.5 trillion in 2021.
The other five countries are Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Uganda. This is according to a report by the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Pension funds are investment pools that accumulate wealth to pay for workers’ retirement. Typically, pension funds are contributed by both workers and their employers, especially in African countries where compulsory pension schemes exist.
Pension fund managers invest in different asset classes such as equities, fixed income assets such as bonds, treasury bills and corporate bonds, Collective Investment Schemes (CIS0, etc.
These seven countries altogether held 92.4 percent of pension fund assets in the OECD area.”
Business Insider Africa said the seven African countries that made it to the top list.
Nigeria’s pension fund assets grew by 9.1 percent to $32.6 billion, representing 7.6 percent of the country’s GDP.
Egypt’s pension fund asset grew by 8.0 percent to $6.2 billion, representing 1.5 percent of the country’s 2021 GDP.
The countries are: Ghana’s pension fund asset grew by 27.2 percent to $4.7 billion, representing 6.3 percent of the country’s GDP in 2021;  Kenya: The country’s pension fund asset grew by 10.6 percent to $13.7 billion, resenting 12.9 percent of the country’s 2021 GDP;  Namibia: This Southern African country’s pension fund assets grew by 17.6 percent to $11.8 billion, representing 103.0 percent of the country’s 2021 GDP.
The remaining two countries include: Uganda’s pension fund assets grew by 15.8 percent to $5.3 billion, representing 12.4 percent of the country’s GDP and
Zimbabwe’s pension fund assets grew by 285.8 percent to $2 billion, representing 7.6 percent of GDP.
The report focused specifically on pension fund assets in 68 countries or reporting jurisdictions, consisting of 38 OECD countries and 30 non-OECD countries in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa.
“Overall, pension fund assets amounted to USD 38.5 trillion in a total of 68 reporting jurisdictions at end-2021.
Most of these assets were held by pension funds in the OECD area, totalling USD 37.7 trillion. The United States recorded the largest amount of assets in pension funds (USD 22.6 trillion), followed by the United Kingdom (USD 3.6 trillion), Australia (USD 2.3 trillion), the Netherlands (USD 2.0 trillion), Canada (USD 1.7 trillion), Japan (USD 1.5 trillion) and Switzerland (USD 1.2 trillion).
Patoma Admin by — September 23, 2022 in Pension 0
FG appoints Bulus Yakubu as Post-Master-General

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

The Federal Government has appointed Mr Bulus Yakubu as acting Post-Master General (PMG) and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Postal Services (NIPOST).

This was contained in a statement issued by NIPOST Director, Corporate Communications, Mr. Franklyn Alao on Thursday in Abuja.who said theMinister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami approved of the appointment

Until his appointment, Yakubu was the Secretary to NIPOST Governing board, Director (Special Duties) and also NIPOST Liaison Officer to the National Assembly.

Yakubu, who holds a Bachelor in Law Degree from Ahmadu Bello University, belongs to a number of professional bodies, notably the International Bar Association (IBA), Nigerian Bar Association (NBA)..
He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Corporate Administration of Nigeria and a Fellow of the Institute for Fraud Management and Control.

According to the statement, he joined the service of the Nigerian Postal Service in 1990 and has served in different capacities with a proven record of excellent performance.

Yakubu replaces Dr. Ismail Adewusi, who was appointed as NIPOST PMG in 2019.

Patoma Admin by — September 22, 2022 in News 0
Sanlam Group acquires FBNInsurance 100%, Sanlam Life Insurance Nigeria Limited

CAPTION:

L- Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Sanlam Life Insurance Nigeria Limited Tunde Mimiko Sanlam Pan Africa (SPA) Life Insurance Cluster CEO Robert Dommisse and Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Sanlam General Insurance Nigeria Limited, Bode Opadokun in Lagos after the rebranding of FBNInsurance to Sanlam Life Nigeria Limited

 

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

Sanlam, Africa’s largest non-banking financial services company, has them acquired FBN Insurance and FBNInsurance Life is now  Sanlam Life Insurance Nigeria Limited.

The acquisition give Sanlam Group 100 percent ownership of FBNInsurance

The move supports the Sanlam’s strategy to deliver excellent products and services to clients through direct contact with the Sanlam brand.

The rebrand further supports Sanlam’s efforts to enhance its presence across Africa as well as its ongoing investment in the continent.

The rebranding will apply to the life and general insurance businesses, Sanlam Life Insurance Nigeria Limited and Sanlam General Insurance Nigeria Limited, respectively.

FBN Insurance was started as a JV between Sanlam and FBN Holdings as a life insurer in 2011 and after a successful growth trajectory, expanded into general insurance by establishing FBN General Insurance in 2015.

FBNInsurance grown into a significant insurance player in the market with a strong management team and we look forward to continuing to deliver excellent financial services and value to our clients and stakeholders.

Sanlam Pan Africa (SPA) Life Insurance Cluster CEO Robert Dommisse highlighted Sanlam’s commitment to Nigeria, and the importance of West Africa market to Sanlam.

SPA is the division in Sanlam Emerging Markets, which encompasses Sanlam Group’s businesses in Africa and other emerging markets such as India and Malaysia.

“Nigeria has always been one of the most important markets for the Sanlam Group because the country is such a key economy on the African continent. It has always been imperative that Sanlam has a strong presence and operation in Nigeria.

“We have a good business in the Nigerian market, and we are going to continue invest and grow the operation. It is important for us that we do so under the Sanlam brand so that the existing and potential customers know that they will be getting the full support of the promises we make in the market.

“We’re very excited about the introduction of the Sanlam brand in Nigeria and we believe it’s a great moment in time for us to step forward to show our brand across an array of touch points and have our diverse stakeholders interact positively with the brand in the Nigeria market,” Dommisse said.

Robert Dommisse

 

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Sanlam Life Insurance Nigeria Limited Tunde Mimiko said, “We look forward to the next exciting chapter of the business under the banner of the Sanlam brand which is committed to continuously promoting consumer access and inclusion in financial services across the African continent.“The introduction of the Sanlam brand is a milestone development for Nigeria. Through our innovative brand offering, we look forward to delivering services that empower generations of Nigerians to be financially secure, confident, and prosperous.”

Tunde Mimiko

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Sanlam General Insurance Nigeria Limited, Bode Opadokun, said, “We have continually evolved our business and our products to add value to many lives. As we step into another exciting phase of our journey, we look forward to delivering services through the compelling brand of Africa’s leading non-banking financial services organization, Sanlam, both in the Nigerian market and West African region.”
Bode Opadokun
Patoma Admin by — September 22, 2022 in Insurance 0
World Bank, IMF invite Jimoh İbrahim for ancillary meeting in Washington in October

By Favour Nnabugwu
Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim, CFR has been officially invited by World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to attend and participate in their ancillary meeting in Washington, United States in October.
The invitation personally addressed to the billionaire business mogul was jointly signed by the two international monetary bodies: World Bank and IMF.
The letter reads in part :  “We are pleased to inform you that you have been registered to attend the 2022 Annual Meetings and other
related ancillary meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group, which will take
place in Washington, D.C. from October 10 – October 16, 2022.”
The Ondo South All Progressives Congress, APC Senatorial Candidate was invited in his capacity as a globally recognized entrepreneur and a scholar in the field of Business.
Recall that Barr Jimoh Ibrahim was recently awarded the first ever Doctor of Business of the prestigious Cambridge University, a feat that has been commended by other scholars across the globe.
Jimoh Ibrahim, PhD will be participating in the Washington meeting from his position as a business scholar, an international tax expert and renown investment entrepreneur
Patoma Admin by — September 20, 2022 in Metro 0
The highest paid in PenCom earns less than N1m- PenCom

By Favour Nnabugwu

National Pension Commission has debunked the misinformation on social media making rounds about staff earning N3 million salary, said that the highest paid official of the Commission earns less than ₦1 million a month.
PenCom in a Statement release yesterday, following the need to correct such misleading publicity, stated that It is not logical and improbable that the least paid will earn a monthly salary of ₦3 million.
Without any doubt, PenCom said that there is an element of mischief and possible blackmail on the Commission’s compensation package.
“From our understanding, it appears someone calculated all staff costs, including training, staff exit benefit scheme, and employer’s pension contribution, and divided the total by the number of the Commission’s employees and concluded that the least paid employee is on a monthly salary of ₦3 million”
PenCom explained further, “There   is a clear difference between staff cost and staff salaries.   It is imperative to point out that right from the inception of the Commission in 2004, the Federal Government mandated the Board to adopt an employee compensation policy that favorably compares to comparator government bodies in the financial services sector, such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).”
It said that PenCom duly followed the law, Section  25(2)(b) of the Pension Reform Act 2014 also empowers the Board of the Commission to fix the remuneration, allowances and benefits of the employees”
“More  so, the Presidential Committee on the Consolidation of Emoluments in the Public Sector headed by the late Chief Ernest Shonekan, former Head of the Interim National Government, made a number of recommendations which guide the PenCom Board in its compensation review exercises”.
“One  of the recommendations is that the pay structure of self-funded agencies should be benchmarked with their private sector comparators so as to ensure relativity in such agencies and attract and retain high-caliber professionals”
“The  Shonekan Committee, which was set up by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2005, also recommended that the pay structure of regulatory agencies should be benchmarked against sectors they monitor to avoid regulatory capture, and that an annual increase in pay should be undertaken to account for inflation/cost of living adjustment and establishments may strive to attain 50th percentile and above their comparators in the private sector”
“We  made all these facts known in a recently submission to the House of Representatives Committee on Finance over the compensation package of the Commission. We also stated that the last compensation package review was done in 2017 with the approval of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF)”

“No review has been done in the last five years and this has affected the ability of the Commission to attract, hire and retain staff with competitive skills.The public is, therefore, implored to ignore the false and mischievous information on the staff compensation package. The Commission has nothing to hide and will continue to run a transparent and accountable system.Signed”

Patoma Admin by — September 17, 2022 in Pension 0
British High Commission offices shut down in Nigeria for Queen Elizabeth ll

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

The British High Commission offices across the country will be closed down for business from Monday 19th of September.

This piece of information was made available via a statement by the UK Mission in Nigeria through all its Social media platforms.

The closure is connected to the death of Queen Elizabeth II and burial arrangements.

The notice, however, added that Visa Application Centres in Abuja and Lagos will remain open.

The notice, however, added that Visa Application Centres in Abuja and Lagos will remain open.

A service of remembrance was held for the Queen on Thursday at the Cathedral Church of Advent in the nation’s capital.

The final resting place of the late Commonwealth head will be at St. George’s Chapel within Windsor Castle, next to her husband, Prince Philip.

Born April 21, 1926, in London, the Queen of England passed away on September 8, 2022, at the Balmoral Castle.

The exact date for re-opening will be passed across in due course.

Patoma Admin by — September 17, 2022 in Foreign 0
Facebook introduces Community Chats 

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

Facebook Chief Executive Officerr and Co-founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has introduced Community Chats on Facebook.

Zuckerberg said that Community Chats let people to connect more deeply with communities in real time around the topics they care about in multiple formats, including text, audio and video.

He explained: “The experience seamlessly blends Messenger and Facebook Groups to allow people to connect when, where and how they want.”

Talking about how it works, he said:
“Admins can now start a conversation about a topic and get in-the-moment responses instead of waiting for people to comment on a post. And, rather than navigating multiple topics in a single Messenger group chat, the person who creates the Community Chat can organize chats into categories so group members can easily find what’s most interesting to them.”

According to him, “We have helped more than a billion people connect with loved ones in a trusted space on Messenger, and we know that people want to engage in real time with larger communities over shared interests.

“For example, a band’s fan group could have a “Breaking News” category with chats dedicated to new album drops, tour dates and group activities.”

“Admins can choose from several options to help their communities connect. They can start a chat for group members around a specific topic, an event chat for an outing or meetup, a view-only broadcast chat for admins to announce group-wide updates and an admin-only chat to collaborate with admins and moderators.

“Admins can also create audio channels so group members can share live commentary or receive real-time support. Participants also have the option to enable video once they’re in the audio channel.”

Zuckerberg added: “Given the more public nature of Community Chats, we have developed a robust suite of tools to help admins easily manage both chat and audio experiences”

“This includes moderation capabilities like blocking, muting or suspending group members, and removing members or messages, as well as Admin Assist, which allows admins to set custom criteria that will automatically suspend users, remove reported messages, and stop messages from ineligible authors or containing violating content from being sent.

“Members of Community Chats can also report messages to group admins or Meta, block users or leave a chat at any time. Learn more about privacy and safety controls in Community Chats.”

He concluded: “We are committed to building messaging experiences that help people connect with their communities, friends and families.

“As Community Chats rolls out to more people and groups around the world, we’ll continue exploring new features and capabilities to make it easier to connect with one another.

Patoma Admin by — September 17, 2022 in Metro 0
AGCS appoints Darren Tasker to new regional role

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) has appointed Darren Tasker as the new regional head of energy and construction for North America.

Allianz Global Corporate & SpecialtyTasker will also join the AGCS North America Executive Management Team (EMT) and report to Bill Scaldaferri, president and CEO for North America.

“He has been with the firm for the last twelve years, holding the position of head of energy and construction in Canada for the last nine. He will remain based in Toronto.

Scaldaferri said in a statement: “We are pleased to announce that Darren will be leading our North American Energy & Construction business.

“This is the first time that a North American business line will be run by an individual based in Canada, demonstrating the strength of our team north of the border.”

Prior to joining AGCS as a senior underwriter managing a portfolio and team of underwriters in the engineering line of business, Tasker was a large construction underwriter at Zurich from 2006-2010.

Patoma Admin by — September 16, 2022 in Insurance 0
Naicom builds 150 capacity lecturer theatre for Kaduna State University

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

National Insurance Commission, Naicom, has commissioned 150 capacity lecturer theatre called ‘Naicom Building’ to Kaduna State University as part of the commission’s Financial Assistance to Tertiary Institutions (FATI).to tertiary institutions

The Commissioner for Insurance, Mr Sunday Thomas remarked that the commission would continue to assist tertiary institutions in the best way possible.

“n line with the request of the Institution that the project be jointly done by NAICOM and the Kaduna State University in order to have a befitting structure, NAICOM approved the request which was the first of its kind” “

“The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM)‘s support to the Kaduna State University was in furtherance of resolve of the Management of NAICOM to achieve one of its mandate which is to promote insurance education and other related subjects towards achieving human capital development provided for in Section 19 (c) of the NAICOM Act 1997.

“The completion of this 150 capacity lecture theatre will undoubtedly be a value-addition to the Kaduna State University, particularly the students who will use this facility. It is our firm belief that you will put this infrastructure to good use for the benefit of all stakeholders.

Thomas thanked the support from the board of Naicom on the feat, “Let me at this point publicly acknowledge the support of the Governing Board of the National Insurance Commission in the pursuit of all its initiatives 

Patoma Admin by — September 16, 2022 in Insurance 0