Pension Fund Assets Value at N8.63tr

• Pension Fund Assets Value at N8.63tr

The total assets of the National Pension Commission stood at N8.63 trillion as at the end of December 2018.

Mrs Aisha Dahir-Umar, who disclosed the details while receiving a Memorandum from the House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on PenCom in Abuja at the weekend, said the total assets of the commission now worth 7.40 per cent of the Rebased Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

She further said the total number of registered contributors rose to 8.41 million as at December 2018, representing a 12.0 per cent of the working population and 4.29 per cent of the total population.

She said: “Over 260,808 persons had retired under the Scheme as at December 2018 and are currently receiving pensions as and when due with an average monthly pension payment of N10.18 billion as at the same period.”

“The pension reform has gained public confidence and acceptability within the short period of its implementation. The private sector, which hitherto was apprehensive of the CPS as a ploy by the public sector to raise funds to address its huge pension liabilities, has come to accept and is religiously implementing the reform. To date, about 200,000 private sector employers of labour are implementing the CPS and have contributed about 60 per cent of the total pension fund assets. The CPS has also introduced transparency and integrity in the pension administration system in Nigeria. From inception of the reform to date, there had not been a single incidence of fraud or mismanagement of the pension funds and assets under the scheme.”

“Attracted by the enormous benefits of the Scheme, 24 states of the federation and the FCT had enacted the laws on the CPS and are at different stages of implementation; six states were at the bill stage on the CPS, three states have adopted the Contributory Defined Benefit Scheme (CDBS), two states are drafting bills to introduce CDBS, while one state has continued with the Defined Scheme as at December 2018.”