FG not planning to illegally access pension funds – Finance Minister

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, has noted that the Federal Government was not planning to illegally access pension funds, contrary to insinuations.

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar had on Wednesday, in a statement slammed the government over an announcement by Edun that that it hopes to rev up economic growth by unlocking N20 trillion from the nation’s pension funds and other funds to finance critical infrastructure projects across the country.

“My attention is drawn to a disturbing disclosure by the Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, as he addressed State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa on Tuesday, 14 May,” Atiku had said.

“There is, according to the Minister, a move by the Federal Government to rev up economic growth by unlocking N20 trillion from the nation’s pension funds and other funds to finance critical infrastructure projects across the country. The Minister has indicated that although “the initiative is expected to attract foreign investment interest over time”, domestic savings are his ‘immediate focus’ for now.

“He provided no useful details, such as the percentage of the funds to be mopped up from the Pension Funds, for example. Even at that, this move must be halted immediately! It is a misguided initiative that could lead to disastrous consequences on the lives of Nigeria’s hardworking men and women who toiled and saved and who now survive on their pensions having retired from service.

“It is another attempt to perpetrate illegality by the Federal Government. The government must be cautioned to act strictly within the provisions of the Pension Reform Act of 2014 (PRA 2014), along with the revised Regulation on Investment of Pension Assets issued by the National Pension Commission (PenCom). In particular, the Federal Government must not act contrary to the provisions of the extant Regulation on investment limits to wit: Pension Funds can invest no more than 5% of total pension funds’ assets in infrastructure investments. I note that as of December 2023, total pension funds assets were approximately N18 Trillion, of which 75% of these are investments in FGN Securities.

“There is NO free Pension Funds thst is more than 5% of the total value of the nation’s pension fund for Mr. Edun to fiddle with.

“There are no easy ways for Mr. Edun to address the challenges of funding infrastructure development in Nigeria. He can’t cut corners. He must introduce the necessary reforms to restore investor confidence in the Nigerian economy and to leverage private resources, skills, and technology. –

The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and its Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, also petitioned the Federal Government over its plans to borrow from pension fund, threatening to cripple the nation, if the fund was tampered with.

But Edun clarified that there’s no such plan.

”It has come to my notice that there are stories making the rounds that the Federal Government plans to illegally access the hard-earned savings and pension contributions of workers. Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said.

”The pension industry, like most of the financial industry, is highly regulated. There are rules and well laid out limitations about what pension fund assets can be invested in, and what it cannot be invested in.

”The Federal Government has no intention whatsoever to go beyond those prescribed limits, or outside those bounds, which are to safeguard the pension of workers.