The National Insurance Commission (PenCom) says that allowing married partners, who have Retirement Savings Accounts, to use their savings to apply for joint mortgage loans under the Contributory Pension Scheme will assist pensioners meet up with the requirement .

According to the Commission titled: ‘Accessing RSA via residential mortgage option’, the spouses must meet laid down requirements, and will start accessing the loans when the commission commences the implementation of the new guideline.

The commission stated in the report, “Spouses, who are RSA holders, shall be eligible to make a joint application subject to individually satisfying the eligibility requirements for accessing the residential mortgage.”

Findings revealed that the commission decided to allow couples to come together to make joint applications, because many workers were worried that they might not be able to meet the criteria in the mortgage guidelines to enable them to have access to their RSAs for mortgage loans.

Section 89 (2) of the Pension Reform Act, 2014 provides that a PFA may, subject to guidelines issued by PenCom, apply a percentage of pension fund assets in the RSA towards payment of equity contribution for payment of residential mortgage by a holder of the RSA.

The main objective of the section is to facilitate access by the RSA holders to residential mortgages as well as stimulate the housing/mortgage finance sector.

According to the commission, the proposed establishment of a mortgage guarantee company by the Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria will enable an RSA holder to obtain a mortgage loan based on a mortgage guarantee issued by the MGC and secured by a portion of the worker’s RSA balance.

Part of the criteria to be eligible are that the RSA holder must be in active employment, either as a salaried employee or self-employed person, and shall make the application in person and not by proxy.

The RSA holder must also have been contributing cumulatively for a minimum of 60 months (five years) prior to the application for mortgage guarantee.

It added that the RSA holder shall provide documentation required for securing the mortgage guarantee from the MGC and or other additional documentation as might be specified by the commission from time to time.

It added that the RSA holder shall provide documentation required for securing the mortgage guarantee from the MGC and or other additional documentation as might be specified by the commission from time to time.