Ebere Nwoji
The National Pension Commission (PenCom), has said that Pension assets as at June 30th 2021 has grown to N12.66 trillion representing N320 billion growth in pension assets from the N12.34 trillion in March 2021.
This is just as the commission said it has set out five strategic focus areas to deepen pension penetration in the country.
Analysis of PenCom numbers showed that the sector recorded higher assets growth rate in the second quarter of the year compared to the N100 billion asset growth it recorded between February and March this year.
The sector had in February this year witnessed major slide of N51.30billion, from the January figure a situation that was blamed on volatility in government bond and other federal government papers.
Speaking at the 2021 Journalists Workshop organised by the commission in Lagos, the Director General, PenCom, Mrs. Aisha Dahiru-Umar said number of registered contributors under the CPS equally grew from N9.30 million in March 2021 to N9.38 million as at June 2020.
She said 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 the Commission’s Strategic Focus Areas comprise of areas of emphasis and these goals are being vigorously towards the attainment of expected objectives.
According to her, public enlightenment and education is one of the five strategic focus areas currently pursued by the Commission.
”This is considered germane considering that seventeen years after the pension reform in Nigeria, there still exists a knowledge gap on the CPS. Consequently, the Commission is committed to reinvigorating its public enlightenment and education drive in order to address this challenge. “Other Strategic focus areas include the resolution of outstanding pension liabilities of the federal government; portfolio diversification of pension fund investments, improvement in customer service delivery across the pension industry and unrelenting pursuit of sustainable growth of the pension industry by expanding coverage of the CPS, “she said.
Dahiru- Umar, who was represented by the commission’s head Corporate communications, Mr. Peter Aghahowa, expressed her delight in the recent federal government’s approval for the payment of some of its outstanding pension liabilities under the CPS.
“The presidential approval covered payment of outstanding accrued pension rights for verified and enrolled retirees of treasury-funded MDAs that are yet to be paid their retirement benefits, as well as the back log of death benefits claims due to beneficiaries of deceased employees of treasury funded MDAs.
“Furthermore, the President also approved the payment of 2.5 percent differential in the rate of employer pension contribution for Federal Government of Nigeria retirees and employees, which resulted from the increase in the minimum pension contribution for employers from 7.5 percent to 10 percent, in line with Section 4(1) of the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2014”, she said.
She also said the theme of this year’s workshop is, “Positioning the Pension Industry in the Post COVID-19 Era, adding that technologically, the Commission has equipped itself to cope with the new normal ushered in by the pandemic.”
According to her, the most recent technological innovation introduced by the Commission is the in-house designed and developed Online Enrolment Application, which has capabilities to register, verify and enroll prospective retirees of Treasury-Funded Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
“By the deployment of this new application, mass gathering of people has been avoided while enhancing convenience for the prospective retirees through a seamless enrolment process. Another notable technological innovation by the Commission was the design and deployment of the Retirement Savings Account (RSA) Transfer System (RTS), which was launched in November 2020,” Dahiru-Umar said.
RTS, according to her, is a computer application developed by the Commission, through which RSA holders transfer their RSAs from one Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) to another.
She said the activation of the RSA transfer provision, which deepens individual choices, is a major milestone in the implementation of the CPS.
