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Chuks Udo Okonta
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has said N17.43 trillion of the N17.66 trillion pension fund assets has been invested in different approved asset classes, leaving the pension sector with cash and other assets of N229.82 billion as at October 31, 2023.
This clarification is expected to assist those who are calling for investment of the N17.66 trillion pension fund assets in a single sector of the economy, that there is no idle fund laying anywhere to meet their supposed investments.
PenCom in an unaudited report on pension funds industry portfolio for the period ended October 31, 2023, noted that the assets grew by N308.68 billion in the month of October, adding that the value of pension funds in United States Dollars was $21.40 billion at the exchange rate of N824.99 to a Dollar.
The pension industry regulator said the number of Retirement Savings Account (RSA) membership as at October 2023 was 10,140,929.
It submitted that N11.42 trillion of the pension assets were invested in Federal Government of Nigeria securities; N282.66 billion in State Government securities; N1.89 trillion in corporate debt securities and N1.68 trillion in money market instruments.
Pension Fund Operators (PFOs) have grew workers pension contributions by over N8 trillion accruing from investments.
Data from Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp) revealed that the total funds under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) stood at 17.64 trillion as at October 2023, while ontributions made by the workers from both private and public sectors stood at over N9 trillion.
Chief Executive Officer, PenOp, Oguche Agudah, in document entitled: ‘At the dawn of 20 years of pension reform, what are the gains?’ stated that workers’ contributions accounted for 54 per cent, while the return on investment accounted for 46 per cent of the entire pension fund assets as at the end of June 2023 from the beginning of the CPS in 2004.
Oguche submitted that workers’ contributions were judiciously invested and the returns were added to the workers’ pension savings, to reduce the effect of inflation on the funds.
