Nigeria Pension Fund Assets Hit N10.8trn
In spite of the Coronavirus pandemic that is threatening businesses across the world, Nigeria’s pension funds asset rose significantly to N10.8trillion as of May ending this year.
LEADERSHIP gathered that this was due to monthly contributions paid by employers from both public and private sectors into the Retirement Savings Account (RSA) of the current workers.
The Asset had risen to N10.51trillion at the end of February, 2020, indicating that the pension funds gained about N290billion between March and May, 2020, a period in which the country was under total lockdown.
Similarly, a document sourced from the National Pension Commission (PenCom) showed that N7.20trillion of the assets, which is 66.74 per cent, was invested in federal government securities.
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The consistent rise in the volume of the nation’s pension Assets, according to LEADERSHIP investigation is attributable to new pension contributions received, interest from fixed income securities and net realised on equities and mutual fund investments.
Investment income, according to our investigation, was instrumental to the continuous growth in pension fund, despite the fact that government at the state and federal levels are not paying the monthly pension contributions of their workers as and when due.
Speaking in an interview with LEADERSHIP earlier, the spokesperson of PenCom, Mr Peter Aghahowa, applauded the private sector for fully keying into the new pension scheme.
He said the pension fund assets, apart from giving hope of a better retirement life to the current workers, serve as major national savings that could spearhead economic growth and development with the right investment instruments.
On the Accrued Rights, he said, “The only major challenge now is the accrued rights which have to do with government funding, but the self-funded MDAs did not have this challenge.
“There seems to be hope this year because despite adjustment to the 2020 budget, pension provision was not affected, meaning that the federal government retirees affected by the development have hope.”
