For workers who have moved across several employments, there is absolute need to consolidate contributory pension accounts before retirement, otherwise some contributions will not be factored into retirement benefits.
Jacobs Adeusi retired in 1991 after working with several textile companies from 1965. He held a couple of contributory account numbers which he failed to consolidate into one.
The result was that his contributions and retirement benefits were based on those of his last place of work, Globespin Textiles Limited, leaving out huge chunks of earlier contributions between 1965 and 1989.
Consequently, Adeusi was paid peanuts as pension. In July 2012, the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) stopped his pension all together, claiming that he did not have up to 120 credit days.
It seemed he did not qualify for pension in the first instance and was paid in error. But that was not true. Adeusi started the contributory pension scheme in the days of the National Provident Fund (NPF) in 1965.
When eventually the NPF was wound down, the National Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) inherited the funds and later turned them over to the Trust Fund Pensions (TFP).
Adeusi is not alone in this traumatic experience that has left him dry without monthly pension. Hundreds of other retirees currently passing through a similar experience have resigned to fate after repeated complaints yielded no result.
Ahmed Tiamiyu, another pensioner from Abeokuta, also falls under this category of those who failed to consolidate contributory pension accounts. Like Adeusi, his pension was stopped in July 2012 and he has since been living without monthly pension stipend.
A visit to any office of the TFP shows the enormity of the problem, as pensioners come in daily to lodge complaints without result.
Given Adeusi’s long working history, it would take quite a lot of effort and reconciliation of documents to restore his pension rights.
You will have to decide whether to consolidate or leave your money spread across several accounts, some of which might be totally lost.
Still on consolidation, couples can also integrate investing strategies into one or leave them separate. Partners with drastically different investing goals and risk tolerance levels would probably feel more comfortable with separate investing strategies. However, if one partner does not want to deal with investing, and you both have relatively similar investment and retirement goals, it makes a lot of sense to take a combined approach and apply one investing strategy to all of the accounts you each own.
