According to information acquired from the National Pension Commission, the total assets under the Contributory Pension Scheme increased by N1.56 trillion in 2022. According to PenCom’s latest ‘Report on Pension Industry Portfolio for the Period Ended 31 December 2022,’ the funds, which ended December 31, 2022, at N13.42tn, increased to N14.99tn at the end of December 2022.
Contributors to the plan increased by 333,002 from 9,529,127 at the end of 2021 to 9,862,129 in the same period of 2022. According to the numbers, N9.64 trillion, or 64.33 percent of the assets, were invested in Federal Government of Nigeria securities, N1.66 trillion in corporate debt securities, N1.98 trillion in money market securities, and N82.8 trillion in mutual funds, among other investments.
In the 2022 third quarter report of the pension industry, the Director-General, PenCom, Aisha Dahir-Umar, said 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, PenCom steadily pursued increased diversification of pension fund portfolios by ramping up efforts aimed at ensuring sustained investment of pension funds in alternative asset classes and structured infrastructure projects that meet the stringent requirements enshrined in the regulation for the investment of pension fund assets, according to the director-general.
She stated that PenCom’s attempts to diversify pension fund investments and hedge against inflation had gradually begun to bear fruit.
She stated that efforts were being made to guarantee that the annualised average rates of return of pension funds across RSA and legacy funds were higher than 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.”
Dahir-Umar noted 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.
