New Contributions Raise Pension Assets to N8.23trn

Ebere Nwoji

The total pension assets under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) have risen from N7.52 trillion as of December 2017, to N8.23 trillion in June 2018.

The Acting Director General of National Pension Commission (PenCom), Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar, who disclosed this at the third annual conference of the National Association of Insurance and Pension Correspondents (NAIPCO) held in Lagos yesterday, attributed the increase to new contributions received, interest/coupon from fixed income securities and net realised/unrealised gains on equities and mutual fund investments.

The PenCom boss, who was represented by the Head, Contributions Bond Redemption Department, PenCom, Lana Loyinmi, said the number of contributors had also grown from 7.89 million in December 2017, to 8.14 million as at June 2018,as a total of 312, 291 employees joined the pension scheme during the first six months of the year.

Umar, who spoke on recent developments in the sector, also pointed out that as part of efforts to enhance the monthly pension of retirees under the scheme, the commission recently initiated the Person Enhancement Programme.
“It was discovered that the returns being generated by the PFAs on the balances of RSAs of majority of retirees could be used to enhance their monthly pensions,” the PenCom boss added.

She added that, the commission sought for and obtained the approval of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to implement the pension enhancement programme, which resulted in increased monthly pensions for most retirees receiving pension under the programmed withdrawal arrangement.

She said the implementation of the pension enhancement was one of the significant milestones attained since the commencement of the CPS, stressing that, it confirmed that CPS had workable internal mechanisms to respond to legitimate demands of retirees as they seek a reasonable retirement income.

The commission, she said, intends to sustain this periodic review exercise in line with relevant provisions of the law.