Q1 2025: Pension Asset Up N820bn to N23.33trn, FG Settles N1.2trn Arrears
EbereNwoji
The National Pension Commission (PenCom), has said that pension assets in the first quarter 2025 witnessed N820billion growth to N23.33 trillion as at March 31, 2025from N22.51 trillion as at December 2024.
The commission disclosed this at a press briefing organised in Lagos where the PenCom Director General, Ms. Omolola Oloworaran, assured contributors into the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) that her regime in PenCom was a new dawn in the pension industry.
She said her administration was making every effort to ensure smooth operation and flow of the CPS.
According to her, in a move to clear the accrued pension of workers who retired from federal civil service, the federal government has, so far, settled about N1.2 trillion of its arrears to the concerned retirees across the country.
The PenComboss said this was the total amount of Accrued Rights paid by the sector since the inception of CPS in 2004.
The accrued rights is the benefits to which a contributing worker into the CPS and a contributor is entitled, to as of right, under an occupational pension scheme. Such rights include pension awards already received and pensionable service built up so far based on a particular pension age.
The unpaid accrued pensions have over the years denied retired federal workers access to their contributions as accrued rights must be paid into workers’ Retirement Savings Account(RSA), before they can be allowed to draw a monthly pension. This system denied most retirees access to their pension benefits when indeed they have money in their RSA.
However, PenCom said in the last two years, the federal government has paid over N700 billion pension arrears, in its determination to clear the pension backlog that has negatively affecting the new scheme.
This means that federal government has now cleared the backlog till March 2025, leaving only April and May backlog to be attended to.
In a related development, the commission said the government has also floated N750 billion pension bonds which would be instrumental in clearing the pension backlog.
The PenCom DG also said she has introduced Pension boost into the CPS.
According to her, this is an initiative that is expected to commence this month of June, 2025 with about 223,000 retirees expected to witness increases in their RSAs, thereby increasing the monthly benefits payment from N8.2billion to N11.2 billion.
