Pension assets hit N9.4trn in August, PenCom says

Nigeria’s contributory pension industry has accumulated assets worth over N9.4 trillion as at August 2019.

This was disclosed by the Acting Director-General of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), Aisha Dahir-Umar, at the 7th Conference for directors of pension operators held In Abuja yesterday.

The latest growth recorded in pension assets translates a growth of N700 billion in seven months from the N8.74 trillion recorded in January 2015 to N9.4 trillion as at August.

“The pension industry in Nigeria is leading the initiative for the attainment of one of our critical national imperative for socio-economic development, which is the formation of long term domestic capital. These pension assets are overwhelmingly invested in the national economy, with positive impact in all major sectors and a significant contribution to the GDP,” Dahir-Umar told the directors.

The PenCom boss called the attention of the directors to the clamour for deployment of pension funds to support several new initiatives in both the public and private sectors.

She said such clamours were inappropriately pursued by proponents as the Pension Reform Act 2014 only empowers PenCom to issue regulations on investment of pension funds and assets to guide the investment activities of the licensed operators.

“The law does not allow the regulator to approve any specific instrument for mandatory investment by operators. Regrettably, the Commission is increasingly being inundated with requests for clearance of several business proposals to enable Pension Fund Administrators finance the initiatives with pension fund,” she said.