Total assets under the contributory pension scheme increased by 460 billion naira in three months to reach 13.88 billion naira in March, according to figures from the National Pensions Commission released on Friday.
This was included in the National Pensions Commission’s latest report titled “Unaudited Report on the Pension Funds Industry Portfolio for the period ended March 31, 2022; Approved existing schemes, administrators of closed pension funds and RSA funds (including unpaid contributions @CBN and legacy funds).
The funds, which ended on December 31, 2021 at 13.42 billion naira, increased to 13.61 billion naira and 13.76 billion naira at the end of January and February 2022 respectively.
The data showed that N8.5tn of total funds were invested in federal government securities, comprising bonds and treasury bills in March.
The amount represented 61.24% of the total assets of the contributory pension scheme.
Other investment portfolios in which the funds were invested included: domestic and foreign common stocks; corporate debt securities including corporate bonds, corporate infrastructure bonds, corporate green bonds and supranational bonds.
PenCom also revealed that the total number of workers with retirement savings accounts increased slightly to 9.589 million at the end of February, from 9.529 million at the end of December 2021.
He said 131,376 workers who retired from active service could not be placed on monthly pensions by the end of 2021.
Figures obtained from PenCom showed that the affected workers received all contributions into their pension savings accounts totaling N32.58 billion, after leaving the contributory pension scheme.
According to PenCom, the affected retirees had less than N550,000 as balance in their RSAs, which did not qualify them to be enrolled in both annuity and scheduled withdrawal retirement options.
The pensions regulator also said some returning foreign nationals had withdrawn their savings before leaving.
According to the Pension Reform Act 2014, any worker with less than 550,000 Naira would be awarded their full RSA balance by the PFA and allowed to leave the pension scheme.
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