‘Bonding With RSA Holders, Trust Critical To Pension Penetration’

Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) have been urged to establish a strong bond with their prospective and existing Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders to excel in the country and earn the trust of Nigerians, Parthian Pensions said.

This, it said, was critical to deepening pension penetration and acceptance in the formal and informal sectors of the nation’s economy. Stating that the country has over 80 million working-class people who should be in the new pension scheme, it noted that the 10.8 million RSA holders are too small compared to the country’s huge population, urging pension industry players to do more to deepen penetration.

Speaking at a media parley in Lagos at the weekend, managing director of Parthian Pensions, Olufemi Odukoya, stated that the company intended to create a stronger bond with its contributors, such that the PFA is always there with them at each stage of their lives, guiding them through their working and retirement lives and, hence, ensuring they retire well.

He disclosed that his company, aside from operating from its physical offices spread across the country’s six geopolitical zones, would leverage technology and pension agents to reach the remotest and grassroots of the country, such that virtually every working-class Nigerian has a pension savings account.
Assuring that the company’s different types of investment and other products were tailored towards the needs of contributors and retirees, he said his PFA will leverage innovation, technology, pension transfer windows, among other things, to make inroads into the industry.
Believing that the new pension operators will leverage the trust built by their parent company, Parthian Partners, to excel, he disclosed that the group is ready to support its subsidiary in the pension business.
To him, Parthian Pension is coming to revolutionise pension business in the country, leveraging on identified gaps and giving the market what it truly needs to grow. Disclosing that the PFA is equally planning to play a big role in the ethical market where there are opportunities within to be tapped, he added that the youthful population is another avenue and catchment market for the PFA, having done lots of research to ascertain what these youths actually want. The ethical initiative is a non-interest RSA Fund VI that ensures retirement savings are invested strictly in accordance with Islamic finance principles, he said.

The group managing director, Parthian Partners, Oluseye Olusoga, assured Nigerians, especially customers of its pension subsidiary that Parthian Pension would meet the ongoing pension industry recapitalisation target as the group would offer all the needed assistance to succeed in the pension landscape.