The pension fund portfolio rose to N14.99 tn as of December 2022
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) report on the performance of the pension industry in Nigeria indicated that pension fund portfolio rose from N13.42 trillion to N14.99 trillion at the end of December, 2022.
The Commission’s ‘Report on pension industry portfolio for the period ended 31 December 2022’ revealed that contributors in the scheme rose slightly by 333,002 from 9,529,127 as at the end of 2021 to 9,862,129 in the corresponding period.
According to the figures, N9.64tn or 64.33 per cent of the assets was invested in the Federal Government of Nigeria’s securities, N1.66tn was invested in corporate debt securities, N1.98tn was invested in money market securities and N82.8bn in mutual funds among other investment portfolios.
In the 2022 third quarter report of the pension industry, the Director-General of the Commission, Aisha Dahir-Umar, sasai “despite the overwhelming head-winds in the global economic climate and the country’s challenging macroeconomic environment, the pension fund assets under management increased.
“This laudable performance, in the growth of the AuM, points to the fact that the pension industry will continue to deliver value and benefit to its stakeholders and the nation’s economy,” she said.
During the period under review, the director-general, said PenCom steadily pursued increased diversification of pension fund portfolios by ramping up efforts aimed at ensuring sustained investment of pension fund in alternative asset classes and structured infrastructure projects that meet the stringent requirements as enshrined in the regulation for the investment of pension fund assets.
She said PenCom’s efforts at diversifying investments of pension funds and hedging against inflation had gradually begun to yield results.
According to her, efforts were on going to ensure that the annualised average rates of return of pension funds across Retirement Savings Account and legacy funds were above headline inflation rates.
She said, “Perhaps, the most significant achievement recorded in the third quarter of 2022 was the successful issuance of guidelines on accessing RSA
“Balance towards payment of equity contribution for residential mortgage. The guidelines give effect to Section 89(2) of the Pension Reform Act 2014, which allows eligible RSA holders to apply a percentage of the balances in their Retirement Savings Accounts for payment of equity contribution towards residential mortgage for employees of the public, private and the informal sectors.”
She stated that the achievement in the Nigerian pension industry could not have been possible without the right people, strategy, culture and governance structures that supported the delivery of consistent and sustained value for all its stakeholders.
