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By Henry Uche
Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) said a total of N303.58 billion has been invested in MTN Nigeria series I and Dangote Industries series I as of the second quarter of 2023.
This was revealed by the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp) at a seminar tagged: “At the dawn of 20 years of pension reform, what are the gains?’ organised by the association in Lagos recently.
In his presentation at the forum, the Chief Executive Officer, PenOp, Oguche Agudah, said the investment formed part of corporate debt securities of the pension fund asset portfolio.
PenOp also said that N400bn was invested in energy power; N40bn in Flour Mills of Nigeria and N11.7bn in Unity Capital Series 11. Another N100bn was invested in LFZC Special Purpose Vehicle and N45bn in Shelter Afrique series 1.
It disclosed that N25bn was invested in Ardova series 1; N115 billion in BUA and N34bn in Prescott Plc. He noted that the Pension Fund Operators (PFOs) also grew workers’ pension contributions by over N8 trillion.
He explained that the total funds under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) stood at N17.64trn as of October 2023, while contributions made by workers from both private and public sectors were over N9trn.
Oguche said that workers’ contributions accounted for 54 per cent of the fund, while the return on investment accounted for 46 per cent of the entire pension fund assets as of the end of June 2023.
He added that workers’ contributions were judiciously invested and that the returns were added to the workers’ pension savings to reduce the effect of inflation on the funds.
Further details showed that as of the end of the third quarter of 2023, the PFAs had recovered N24.8bn from defaulting employers, The PenOp chief noted that in the second quarter, N665.13bn had been paid as a lump sum to annuity retirees while N964.24bn went to programmed withdrawal retirees, making a total of N1.64trn that was paid to 442,000 retirees.
