About 45,976 beneficiaries have received the death benefits of their deceased relatives worth N274.34bn in five years.

This was disclosed by the National Pension Commission in its latest Pension Industry Performance Dashboard.

The data from PenCom indicated that the highest value of death benefits was paid in 2024 to the tune of N82.22bn received by 10,451 beneficiaries.

Over the five-year period, the highest number of beneficiaries, 10,631, was recorded in 2022, valued at N59.6bn. In 2020, about 6,731 beneficiaries received N31.09bn as death benefits. It increased to N42.83bn in 2021 for 8,327 beneficiaries, and in 2023, about N58.6bn was paid to 9,836 beneficiaries.

This data indicate that there has been a consistent increase in the value and number of beneficiaries over the five years under review.

Meanwhile, 176,424 participants in the Contributory Pension Scheme who are temporarily out of a job for varied reasons have been able to get N134.94bn as benefits payout.

The pension act allows for temporary access to RSA due to the loss of a job, whether it be that the employee voluntarily retires, disengages, or is disengaged from employment before the age of 50 years.

It allows affected persons to withdraw an amount not exceeding 25 per cent of his/her RSA balance only after four months if he/she is unable to secure another employment.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian pension industry portfolio grew about 22.60 per cent to close December 2024 at N22.51tn from N18.36tn as of December 2023.

According to the report, pension assets had grown month-on-month by about 1.15 per cent from N22.26tn to N22.51tn while the total number of registered Retirement Savings Account holders stood at 10,582,299.

Investment in Federal Government securities remained a top choice for licensed pension fund administrators, followed by corporate debt securities and money market instruments before mutual funds.

Death Benefit is the available Retirement Savings Account balance due to the legal beneficiary(ies) of a deceased RSA holder.