Ebere Nwoji
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has announced that all Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) in the country met its April 27,2022 deadline of upgrading their minimum operating capital from N1 billion to N5 billion.
PenCom Director General, Aisha Dahir-Umar who disclosed this in a statement said, “All PFAs have complied with the commission’s directive for the increase of the Minimum Regulatory Capital (Shareholders’ Fund) from N1 billion to N5 billion.”
PenCom had in April 27,2021 mandated all pension fund administrators in the country to upgrade their operating minimum capital from N1 billion to N5 billion, giving them one year grace period to meet the new capital.
According to the commission, the exercise had become expedient as the value of pension fund assets under management and custody had grown exponentially by 244 per cent, from N3 trillion in 2012 (when the previous recapitalisation was done) to N12.29 trillion (as at December 31, 2020).
PenCom noted that the sustained growth in assets implied greater fiduciary responsibilities that required more operational capacity by the PFAs.
It said the urgent need to ramp up PFAs capacity to manage the increasing number of registered contributors and value of pension fund assets under management led to the exercise.
“It is worthwhile to state that 10 PFAS had met the new regulatory capital requirement of N5 billion as at 31 December 2021, while the others intensified efforts to meet the deadline of 27 April 2022. This resulted in some mergers and acquisitions, which led to the reduction of the number of PFAs from 22 to 20, ”it stated.
Meanwhile, it was learnt that some firms that could not meet the new capital on their own merged with others while some others were acquired.
For instance, before the deadline, the commission approved the acquisition of AllCO Pension Managers Limited by FCMB Pensions Limited; and the merger between Tangerine Pensions Limited and APT Pension Funds Managers Limited.
The commission had also approved Norrenberger’s acquisition of IEI-Anchor Pension Managers Limited, after its acquisition of the majority shareholder, in IEI PIc.
According to the commission, With the conclusion of the recapitalisation exercise, stakeholders, particularly RSA holders, should expect increased effectiveness and efficiency as well as improved service delivery from PFAS.
Before now, there were 22 licensed PFAs operating in the system and four Pension Fund Custodians. With this development, there are now 20 Pension Fund Administrative operating in the country.
They are: ARM Pension Managers Limited ,CrusaderSterling Pensions Limited, FCMB Pensions Limited which has taken over AIICO Pensions, Fidelity Pension Manager
First Guarantee Pension Limited, Investment One Pension Managers Limited, Leadway Pensure PFA Limited, Nigerian University Pension Management Company (NUPEMCO), NLPC Pension Fund Administrators Limited and NPF Pensions Limited.
Others include; OAK Pensions Limited, Pensions Alliance Limited, Premium Pension Limited,Radix Pension Managers Limited, Sigma Pensions Limited, Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited, Tangerine Pensions Limited, Trustfund Pensions Limited and Veritas Glanvills Pensions Limited.
