Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja
The Nigerian Pension Fund Administration Data for 2016 just released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reflected that the Pension Fund Asset as at December 31, 2016 stood at N6.164 trillion as against N5.302 trillion in 2015.
The total asset as at the period under review represents six per cent of the Nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as against 5.57 per cent in 2015.
According to available data, 98.56 per cent of the funds were invested in domestic market while the remaining 1.44 per cent were invested in foreign market.
Funds invested in foreign markets are those of pension schemes of multinational companies brought into the Contributory Pension Scheme
FGN debt securities has the highest weight percentage of 71.28 per cent of the total pension fund assets and closely followed by ordinary shares with 9.48 per cent weight and money market securities with 6.51 per cent weight. Infrastructure funds have the least with 0.03 per cent weight.
According to the NBS’ figures, participants within the age distribution below 40 years have the highest percentage composition by sector and gender, closely followed by participants within the age brackets of 40-49 years and 50-59 years respectively while participants above 60 years have the least percentage composition by sector and gender.
Recent reports indicated that the pension fund assets have continued to grow despite the failure of some employers to remit workers’ contributions.
Between April and June 2017, there were 97,713 Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders registered under the new pension scheme, with 77,023 contributors from the private sector.
Similarly, 9,148 workers from the federal government registered under the Contributory Pension Scheme while state governments recorded 11,542 contributors, thereby bringing the total number of pension contributors from the inception of the scheme in 2004 to 7.6 million.
