By Ngozi Onyeakusi … The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has disclosed that the number of workers under the Contributory Pension Scheme has grown to 8,271,948 at the end of September 2018 from 7.7 million in the same period of 2017.

According to the commission, the figure was 7.3 million as of the end of 2016.

In a recent circular, the Federal Government has mandated all workers under the CPS to produce their National Identification Numbers as part of their pension requirements.

The National Pension Commission disclosed this in a circular, titled ‘Notice on mandatory use of National Identification Number for all existing RSA holders’.

The circular read, “The Federal Government has made it mandatory that every Nigerian must have a National Identification Number.

generating organisations have been directed to harmonise their database with the National Identity Management Commission, whose mandate is to implement the National Identity System in Nigeria.

“To enable the pension industry to comply, PenCom has directed all Pension Fund Administrators to update the records of their clients. Consequently, all Retirement Savings Account holders, both active and retired, are hereby advised to approach their PFAs to provide their NINs and Bank Verification Numbers, as well as other mandatory bio-data information.”

The Pension Reform Act mandates every employer with a minimum of three employees to open an RSA for the workers, which would be funded by both employer and employees.

The employer is required to pay 10 per cent while the workers are required to contribute eight per cent