Yemisi Izuora
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) is seeking new framework that will adequately guarantee wider investment space utilising the country’s huge pensions fund.
The agency sees the fund as long term capital strategically suited for investment in infrastructure.
At a media chat in Lagos to announce the 2nd edition of the ‘WorldPensionSummit’ Africa Special, director general (D-G) of PenCom Chinelo Anohu-Amazu observed that Africa and indeed Nigeria is faced with huge infrastructure deficit and pensions funds as long term capital are ideally suited for investment in that are.
Anohu-Amazu, could not imagine why such challenge persists despite availability of huge aggregate of pensions funds.
She said the upcoming summit, themed “Building Sustainable Pension System In Africa” would attract experts in the areas of investment, infrastructure financing, real estate and other pension-related fields.
The event will also feature plenary on ‘Reform and Development in African Pension System (Regional Reports), ‘Global Developments in Pension System and ‘Real Deal; Structuring Pension Investments for Sustainability and ‘Expanding Investment Frontiers for Pension Funds’ and team will address specific interest areas.
The D-G also noted that Africa has not achieved much in the area of micro pension plans, and that the session would focus attention on the huge potentials that exist in that area to encourage African countries to take bold steps to come up with suitable and innovative pension plans that will adequately cater for the needs of informally employed persons.
She promised that the summit will help harness African talents in pensions as it will provide the platform for pension regulators and operators in Africa to brace up to the challenge of positively contributing to the socio-economic growth of the continent.