According to the National Pension Commission (PenCom), total pension assets in the country reached N14.27 trillion in the first half of this year, reflecting an increase of nearly N843 billion when compared to N13.88 trillion at the end of March this year.
This is mentioned in the commission’s unaudited monthly report for the first half of 2022, which was published on the commission’s official website. According to PenCom, the fund was contributed to by a total of 9, 795,957 participants who were registered in the contributory pension system at the time of the review.
PenCom reported that a total of 27,157 contributors deserted their prior fund managers and moved to new pension fund managers out of the aforesaid number of participants between January and June 2022, bringing the total number of RSA transfers processed by the commission to 78,549 since the opening of the transfer window barely two years ago.
The transfer window is a commission effort that permits contributors to switch from one pension fund administrator to another.
According to PenCom, the first quarter of 2021 had the biggest quarterly movement of contributors, 20.1 percent quarter on quarter, “an indicator of greater rivalry in the market.”
The commission said that RSA registrations increased by 2.8% to 9.79 million from 9.53 million in December 2021, reflecting an increase of 266,830 new RSA registrations in six months. According to the commission, the majority of the assets are invested in federal government bonds.
“Pension Fund Assets were mainly invested in federal government securities, accounting for 61.26 per cent of total assets. The composition of investments in FGN Securities was as follows: FGN Bonds: 92.20 per cent, Treasury Bills: 3.45 per cent, and Agency Bonds, Sukuk and Green Bonds accounting for 1.29 per cent, ”PenCom stated.
It further said investments in corporate debt securities rose significantly by 26.11 per cent to N1.19 trillion in the review period while investments in real estate increased by 50.66 per cent to N236.2 billion as of June 2022 from N156.8 billion recorded at the beginning of the year.
“Investments in private equity funds dipped slightly by 0.24 per cent to stand at N38.87 billion from N38.96 billion. PFA allocations to FGN securities stood at N9.01 trillion, a 2.67 per cent increase from N8.77 trillion in December 2021, “it stated. The report said PFAs raked in a total of N191.44 billion in the period under review.
Out of this, PenCom said the public sector accounted for N90.33 billion or 47.18 per cent while the private sector contributed N101.11 billion or 52.82 per cent. It further said cumulative pension contributions from inception to the end of the first quarter of 2022 amounted to N7.77 trillion, which is an increase from N7.58 trillion by the end of Q4, 2021.
In terms of contributions by the various funds, PenCom’s report said the RSA fund II accounted for most of the fund contribution with N6.24 trillion, representing 43.7 per cent of the total pension funds, followed by RSA Fund III with N3.86 trillion, which represents 27 per cent of the total assets and existing schemes accounted for 10.1 per cent of the total funds, increased by N85.78 billion to stand at N1.44 trillion, while the Closed Pension Fund Administrators (CPFAs) accounted for 10.7 per cent of the total funds, standing at N1.52 trillion for the period.
Investments in the Nigerian stock market in the first half of the year grew by an additional N53.85 billion, bringing the total investments to N969.16 billion.
