Matthew Otoijagha
The National Pension Commission on Tuesday called for increased vigilance in the management of national pension assets, which it said had risen to over N9.4tn as of August 2019.
Acting Director-general of Pencom, Aisha Dahir-umar, who spoke at a conference for directors of pension administrators in Abuja, noted that the clamour for the deployment of pension assets in new initiatives was most times inappropriate.
Dahir-umar said the pension administrators should not derail from the primary mandate of payment of retirement benefits.
She said, “It is no longer news that the pension industry in Nigeria is leading the initiative for the attainment of one of our critical national imperatives for socio-economic development, which is the formation of long term domestic capital.
“The industry has accumulated assets worth over N9.4th as of August 2019. These pension assets are overwhelmingly invested in the national economy, with positive impact in all major sectors and a significant contribution to the GDP.
“What is news, however, is the recent upsurge of clamour for deployment of pension funds to support several new initiatives in both the public and private sectors. Often times, such clamours are inappropriately pursued by its proponents.”
According to her, the Pension Reform Act, 2014, only empowered the regulator to issue Regulations on Investment of Pension Funds and Assets to guide the investment activities of the licensed operators.