Pension savings have become an immediate lifeline for Nigerians as rising unemployment forced more people to draw on their balances for day-to-day expenses.
This development has seen workers in both the public and private sectors who lost their jobs fall back on pension savings to survive current economic hardships.
Data from the National Pension Commission shows that at the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, a total 10,307 Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders, otherwise called contributors, requested to access 25 percent of their balances due to temporary loss of employment.
According to the commission, out of that, 10,299 RSA holders’ requests were approved and they took away N6.51 billion.
“Out of the applicants whose benefits were approved, 9,819 were from the private sector, while the remaining 480 were from the public sector,” it said.
