Pension assets now N8trn as N50bn invested on road construction

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has said that pensioner’s contribution has hit the N8 trillion mark. The Commission said that the contributions moved from N7.779 trillion in March 2018 to N8 trillion in April.

Speaking in a television programme, the Head of Research and Corporate Strategy Department at PenCom, Dr. Farouk Aminu, said that the funds is greatly impacting the economy as over N50 billion has been invested in Federal Government Sukuk securities deployed on construction of roads.

Also speaking, the Acting Director-General, PenCom, Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar, noted that between January and February, 2018, the Pension Fund gained N270 billion, increasing from N7.52 trillion to N7.779 trillion as 390,000 workers from the public and private sectors of the economy joined the new Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

She said the Commission was intensifying efforts at ensuring that the provision of necessary infrastructure for the launching of the Micro Pension Scheme in line with its strategic objective of expanding coverage of the CPS to the underserved sector.

She added that the Commission has initiated the Pension Enhancement Programme to enhance the monthly pension of retirees in the Contributory Pension Scheme.

The DG noted that it was discovered that the returns being generated by the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) on the balances of the Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) of majority of retirees could be used to enhance their monthly pensions, She said, PenCom sought for and obtained the approval of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to implement the pension enhancement.

Credit: The Sun