In this article, I document how it took two years for me to transfer my pensions from the National Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) to my Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) – Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers (Stanbic Pension).

The transfer is still pending, by the way.

This mail is not to denigrate. It’s to highlight my personal experience and advocate for ways PFAs and regulators like @pencomnig can make pension transfers and claims seamless. The process shouldn’t evoke the frustration our parents faced.

As I reflect, my key realization is this: during the process, the power rested with the PFA and my former employer – not me, the person who earned the pension. And that, in my opinion, is unfair to the Nigerian worker.

Process Begins in 2023

In 2023, I initiated the transfer of my pension from NSITF to Stanbic Pension.

I had contributed to Stanbic’s Retirement Savings Account (RSA) for years and wanted to consolidate my pensions.

As allowed under the Pension Reform Act, existing contributions from NSITF can be transferred to an RSA.

Having lost my NSITF certificate, I obtained a police affidavit and attached my statement, which NSITF graciously provided. I included all documents requested by Stanbic Pension and submitted them via my Stanbic IBTC bank branch, as instructed.

My mistake? Not asking for a signed acknowledgement at the branch. They misplaced my documents.

November 9, 2023

I resubmitted my application and supporting documents at a Stanbic Pension branch and emailed soft copies as backup. I’d learned my lesson.

November 10, 2023

Stanbic Pension acknowledged the email.

November 29, 2023

I followed up via email. A reply came, apologizing for the delay. I was asked to complete missing sections of the NSITF transfer form.

December 12–13, 2023

I confirmed that all documents were now submitted. Stanbic then sent what seemed like a pre-scripted request for:

• Affidavit for the lost certificate
• Police report
• Employer’s letter of indemnity (even though I’d left my job three years prior)
• NSITF contribution transfer form

December 14, 2023

Stanbic insisted they were still waiting for the hard copies. I reminded them they had been sent.

January 23, 2024

Stanbic requested a coloured passport photo on a white background and a thumbprint on the transfer form.

They also claimed not to have received the attachments from my November email.

I responded, explaining that hard copies had been submitted and that, being abroad, I couldn’t provide a thumbprint at that moment. I asked if a notarized scan would suffice. They said no.

That response was particularly vexing. It excluded Nigerians abroad unless they could courier physical thumbprinted documents back home.

At that point, I paused the process. I wasn’t ready for the stress.

July 21–23, 2024

I resumed. A passport photo and thumbprinted form were submitted.

Stanbic replied, asking again for a sworn affidavit. I pointed out that the affidavit had already been submitted to their branch – with proof of delivery.

July 24, 2024

Stanbic replied that my NSITF number wasn’t included in the affidavit. They had now located the document.

August 9–23, 2024

I submitted an updated affidavit with the NSITF number. Stanbic acknowledged receipt and confirmed that they had everything needed to process the application.

November 10–11, 2024

I requested a status update and asked how to redeem my pension. Stanbic responded with the claim process details, citing the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2014: If under 50, an RSA holder can only access 25% of their balance after four months of unemployment — and only once.

The checklist included:

• Application form
• Passport photo
• Birth certificate/age declaration
• Exit letter from employer
• Confirmation letter
• Bank details
• Valid ID

December 20–24, 2024

I submitted the required documents. Stanbic confirmed they were contacting my former employer to verify the pension payments. Follow-up emails confirmed the process was underway.

January 2025

25% of my pension was paid. To Stanbic’s credit, once I submitted the documents, this only took a few weeks.

However, the NSITF transfer is still pending and unconfirmed.

In Conclusion

The real bottleneck lies in transferring pensions from NSITF to the new PFA.

The actual claim process for pensions was relatively smooth once all documents were submitted to Stanbic.

But the transfer? It requires patience and energy many might not have.

This creates a scenario where contributors abandon their NSITF pensions entirely. NSITF is probably sitting on billions in unclaimed funds.

The National Pension Commission must intervene. If contributing to pensions is easy, transferring them should be too.

Thank you for reading.

There’s a bottleneck in the Nigerian pension process – transferring pensions from NSITF to a new PFA. The regulator ought to look into this.

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