Pension fund assets rise by N450bn In 2 months, hit N15.44trn, assures safety of contributions

By allcitynews.ng

Despite the hard business environment, the leadership of National Pension
Commission [PenCom] said the agency has recorded pension fund of N266 billion in January 2023 edging the assets to N15.26trillion at the end of January.

Even as the pensions regulatory body assured all that their contributions are in safe hands.

In February 2023, the fund soared by
another N183billion to push the pension
Fund Assets to N15.44 trillion at the end
of February 2023, making a cumulative
N449billion growth recorded on the assets within the first two months of the current year.

In its unaudited report on the pension
funds industry for the month of February 2023, PenCom stated that the number of Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders stood at 9.92 million.

In dollar equivalent, PenCom disclosed in
the report that the fund assets amounted to $33.47 billion, valued at an exchange rate of N415 to a dollar.

N9.98 trillion out of the N15.45 trillion, it
stressed, was invested in federal government securities, while N160.31 billion was invested in state governments’ securities, even as corporate debt securities gulped N1.67 trillion and money market instruments got N1.69 trillion.
Investment income, was instrumental to the continuous growth in
pension funds despite the fact that some
governments at majorly state level are not
paying the monthly pension contributions
of their workers as and when due.

Similarly, the huge increase, according
to findings, was attributed to new pension
contributions received, interest from fixed
income securities and net realised on equities and mutual fund investments.

The Director General of National Pension
Commission (PenCom), Mrs Aisha Dahir-
Umar, had said the growth in the pension
fund assets under the new pension scheme is an indication of prudent and sincere management of the pension fund by the pension operators and the regulator.

“The maintenance of a consistent
growth trajectory continues to justify
the Commission’s overriding investment
philosophy of ensuring the safety of pension fund assets,” she said.

At a seminar in Lagos in December 2022,
the executive secretary/CEO, Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp), Oguche Aguda, while applauding the contributions of pension fund operators toward growing the assets, assured pension contributors that their funds are in safe hands.

He noted that there had been no reported
mismanagement of pension funds under the new scheme known as Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), a development he said was due to prudent management of the assets by operators and strict enforcement of pension regulations by PenCom.

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