Yemisi Izuora
The National Pension Commission, PenCom has disclosed that the Nigeria’s pension contributions has taken a significant leap from N7.779 trillion in March 2018 to N8 trillion.
The Head of Research and Corporate Strategy Department at PenCom, Dr. Farouk Aminu, who disclosed this on a television programme, noted that the pension funds have continued to grow significantly.
Farouk noted that the funds in greatly impacting the economy, stressing that over N50 billion has been invested in Federal Government Sukku securities which are deployed on construction of roads.
According to the Acting Director-General, PenCom, Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar, between January and February, 2018, the Pension Fund gained N270 billion, increasing from N7.52 trillion to N7.779 trillion and 390,000 workers from the public and private sectors of the economy joined the new Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
She said the commission is 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.
She 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.
This, she pointed out, resulted in increased monthly pensions for most retirees receiving pension under the Programmed Withdrawal arrangement, even as, the PFAs have commenced the enhancement of pensions of all retirees under Programmed Withdrawal with effect from December 2017.