PFAs invests over N940bn pension fund assets in banks

From Ngozi Onyeakusi, Lagos

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has disclosed that the Pension Fund Operators (PFO) have so far invested over N940 billion pension fund assets in banks .
According to the commission operators had as at June 30, 2019, invested N940.68 billion out of the N9.33 trillion total pension fund assets in banks.
PenCom noted that the operators also invested N105.05 billion in commercial papers; N1.82 billion in foreign money market securities and N23.67 billion in mutual funds.
The pension industry regulator posited that investments in FGN securities was N6.49 trillion amounting to N4.44 trillion in Bonds; N1.94 trillion in Treasury Bills; N11.82 billion in Agency Bonds (NMRC & FMBN); N86.10 billion in Sukku and N12.13 billion in Green Bonds.
The data revealed that N536.97 billion was invested in domestic ordinary shares; while N64.87 billion in foreign ordinary shares.
Pension operators invested N129.60 billion in State Government’s Securities; Corporate Bonds got N486.25 billion; Supra-National Bonds got N6.03 billion; Corporate Infrastructure Bonds got N11.49 billion and Corporate Green Bonds got N8.13 billion.
Others are, Reits, N14.37 billion; private equity fund, N31 billion; Real Estate Properties, N250 billion; infrastructure funds, N29.17 billion; Open/Close-End Funds, N9.29 billion and cash & other assets, N214.21 billion.
The Acting Director-General, PenCom, Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar said the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) has been very impactful in Nigeria since the commencement of its implementation in 2004, adding that the formation of long term domestic capital, represented by the over N9.33 trillion worth of pension assets as at June 2019, belonging to 9 million formal sector participants, is slowly but surely changing Nigeria’s financial landscape.