By Bisi Bamishe
National Pension Commission (PenCom) has granted approval to applications by 11 Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders seeking to own houses through the pension residential mortgage scheme.
While PenCom received 18 applications from RSA holders, seven of them were turned down because the banks used for the applications didn’t have the mandatory pension compliance certificates required to enable private companies execute government business.
The Commission expects more RSA holders to follow stipulated guidelines for residential mortgage scheme to enable them easily secure approval.
It would be recalled that PenCom had approved 34 mortgage banks and 29 commercial banks for full implementation of acquisition of residential mortgages by RSA holders.
The commercial banks include: Access Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, First City Monument Bank Limited, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and Citibank Nigeria Limited.
Others were, Ecobank Nigeria, Heritage Bank Plc, Keystone Bank Limited, Polaris Bank Limited., Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, Standard Chartered, Sterling Bank Plc, Titan Trust Bank Limited, Unity Bank Plc, Wema Bank Plc and Globus Bank Limited.
The remaining were, Parallex Bank Limited, PremiumTrust Bank Limited, Providus Bank Limited, SunTrust Bank Nigeria Limited, Optimus Bank, Signature Bank, Jaiz Bank Plc, LOTUS BANK and TAJBank Limited
Acxording to PenCom guidelines, where 25 per cent is insufficient as equity contribution, RSA holder shall deposit the difference with the mortgage lender.
Those exempted from this initiative, according include RSA holders that have less than three years to retirement; existing retirees on CPS; exempted persons under the PRA 2014 and RSA holders who do not have both employer and employee’s mandatory contributions for a cumulative minimum period of 60 months.
