From left: Executive Director, Premium Pension Limited, Kabir Tijani; Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Umar Mairami and Executive Director, Kemi Oluwashina at the event.
SPEECH DELIVERED BY MR. UMAR SANDA MAIRAMI,
MANAGING DIRECTOR & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF
PREMIUM PENSION LIMITED AT THE PRESS BREIFING HELD AT THE LAGOS ISLAND REGIONAL OFFICE,
76 AWOLOWO ROAD, IKOYI LAGOS, ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2018.
PROTOCOL
I am delighted to welcome members of the National Association of Insurance and Pension Correspondents (NAIPCO) to this maiden Press Briefing on the activities of Premium Pension Limited. I would like to start by expressing our appreciation to you all for the pivotal role you are playing in enlightening and educating the general public on the workings and developments of the pension industry, in general, and Premium Pension Limited, in particular. It is noteworthy that you have become an integral part of the Nigerian Pension industry through your various write-ups and balance reportage which keeps the public informed about the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
I am glad to say that, since my assumption of office, as Chief Executive Officer in January this year, our focus has been on 3 key areas; driving operational excellence through adoption of Quality Management Standards, improving customer experience across all interaction platforms and consolidating investment returns within defined acceptable risk. All of these objectives are to ensure that we stay committed to delighting our customers.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, please permit me to seize this opportunity to present our performance so far in 2018, relative to the industry’s. This will be preceded by a brief review of the operating environment.
OVERVIEW OF THE NIGERIAN ECONOMY
Supported by growth in the non-oil sector, specifically in Construction, Services and Agriculture, the Nigerian Economy grew by 1.95% and 1.5% in Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 of 2018 respectively, as released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This was an improvement from the 0.82% recorded in 2017, however there are concerns given the growth slowdown witnessed in Quarter 2. To a large extent, we believe this challenging operating environment explains the relatively low 4.5% growth recorded in number of Retirement Savings Account (RSA) in the Pension Industry, in the first nine months of the year and 10.8% growth in Industry Assets Under Management (AUM) over the same period.
PREMIUM PENSION LIMITED PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
In the first nine months of 2018, we recorded a 4.96% growth in our RSA numbers, an improvement from total industry trend of 4.5%, while our AUM grew 13.7%, a significant improvement from industry AUM growth over the period. This speaks to our commitment to being an industry leader, not only in growth of RSA numbers but in investment performance. We were therefore delighted to see our oldest and largest RSA Fund II reported in the online press, recently, as the best performing RSA Fund II in the Industry, year to September 2018. That Fund was also the first to attain a N4.0000 unit price, within the industry, and this performance corresponds to an annual average return of 12%, since inception in 2006.
In a drive to ensure we continue to improve our efficiency levels and invariably customer experience, we adopted two International Organization for Standardization (ISO) management systems, specifically ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System (QMS) and ISO 27001:2013 Information Security Management System (ISMS). We were recently recertified for the later and currently in the final stages of getting certified for the former. These projects were implemented simultaneously with our new, fully integrated and customer-centric Core Business Application.
All of these initiatives are being embarked upon to differentiate ourselves using technology – easy-to-use multi interaction platforms for our customers -and improve the customer journey with us.
Speaking to our strength, we account for over 10% of total industry retirees on Programmed Withdrawal and have paid out over N86bn in lump sum and programmed withdrawal benefits, since inception, representing 18% of total amount paid by the industry, in this regard. Our emphasis is ensuring the payment process is as seamless as possible, for our customers, and with necessary risk controls and we will continue to ensure this is the case.
CONCLUSION
Our Customers are at the centre of all we do and we appreciate their consistent feedback and support, which has served as input into all the improvement projects currently being implemented. We restate our commitment to remain true to our core values – Care, Integrity, Transparency, Ethics and Professionalism – in carrying out all our duties to them and other key stakeholders. We thank you for the opportunity to be heard and look forward to consistent support from the Association.
Thank you.
Mr. Umar Sanda Mairami
Chief Executive Officer,
Premium Pension Ltd
