FG borrowed N6.1trn from N8.49 pension assets – PENCOM

The Federal Government (FG) has borrowed about N6.16 trillion out of the N8.49 trillion pension assets under the Contributory Pension Scheme.

The figures from the National Pension Commission (NPC) on Tuesday in Abuja, revealed that  the FG’s borrowing represents 73.5 per cent of the pension fund.

According to data from Pencom, Pension Fund Administrators also invested 6.87 per cent or N584.321 billion of the fund in domestic ordinary shares, while 0.71 or N60.529 billion of the fund was invested in foreign ordinary shares.

The commission, which said that it continued its consultative philosophy in the regulation and supervision of the industry, said the risk-based examination approach was implemented as a way of promoting transparency and providing early warning signals as well as encouraging pension operators to regularly self-evaluate their positions.

The Acting Director-General, PenCom, Mrs Aisha Dahir-Umar, who spoke  on how to a achieve a stable pension sector, said the commission adopted zero tolerance for non-compliance and consultative supervisory philosophy in the issuance of guidelines and the review of existing ones to further promote sound corporate governance in the industry and ensure the security of the pension assets.

She further revealed that the commission in 2018, moved to a more risk-based approach to supervising pension operators by aligning its supervisory framework with that of the Financial Services Regulation Coordinating Committee.

“We believe this will promote better risk management in licensed pension operators,” she stated.

The commission, Dahir-Umar said, also released the framework and guidelines for the implementation of the micro pension scheme, which was targeted at increased participation of employees in the informal sector, multi-fund structure and revised guideline for fund accounting as well as revised circular for branch opening and service centre by the PFAs.

She explained: “Similarly, circulars on pension enhancement and processing procedures of deceased benefits entitlement were also released by the commission”.