The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has disbursed the sum of N14.2 billion to 8,651 Nigerians who experienced temporary job losses in the first quarter of 2024.
The beneficiaries are those under the age of 50, averaging around N1.64 million per person and intended to alleviate the financial challenges faced by individuals due to unemployment
In its first quarter 2024 report, the commission indicated that a total of 8,702 Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders requested to access 25 per cent of their Retirement Savings Account (RSA) balances due to temporary loss of employment.
It said 8,651 requests were approved, while 51 were rejected based on the applicants’ age, most of whom were over the age of 50.
PenCom said the approved applicants comprised 8,167 individuals from the private sector and 484 from the public sector.
It further said that from inception to March 2024, a total of N238.19 billion were approved for 501,807 requests, with the total amount being an increase of 6.34 per cent from N223.99 billion recorded in December 2023.
The total number of requests submitted since inception was 518,850, with 501,807 approved and 17,043 rejected.
In Q1, the private sector remained predominant with 8,167 approvals, which is 94.4 per cent of the total requests made in that period.
