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The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has asked the Pension Funds Administrators to raise their shareholders’ funds from N1bn to N5bn.
Some operators disclosed this on Thursday, April 29, saying the total number of workers with pension accounts under the Contributory Pension Scheme rose slightly to 9,265,141 as of the end of February.
Reports have gathered that the CPS which had been the fastest-growing funds in the economy lost N52bn in February.
The PenCom explained that the pension assets which ended December 2020 at N12.306tn fell by N7bn to N12.299tn as of the end of January.
The commission noted that the funds fell to N12.247tn in February. The bulk of the funds were invested in the Federal Government’s securities.
It was learnt that other investment portfolios were domestic and foreign ordinary shares; corporate debt securities comprising corporate bonds, corporate infrastructure bonds, corporate green bonds and supra-national bonds.
Techeconomy.ng reported that the commission disclosed that most federal government workers that retired from March 2020 to March 2021 have not been paid their pensions.
The PenCom Director-General, Aisha Umar, disclosed this while presenting her welcome remarks during the oversight visit of the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Services to the commission in Abuja.
Umar said: “It is perhaps appropriate at this juncture to highlight some of the major challenges of the commission.
“As you are aware, the fundamental objective of pension reform is to ensure that every worker receives their retirement benefits as and when due.
“However, it is sad to report that there are, today, a large number of Federal Government employees who retired from March 2020 to March 2021 under the Contributory Pension Scheme that are yet to receive their pensions due to non-payment of their accrued pension rights.
This challenge, which started in 2014, was essentially triggered by the appropriation of insufficient amounts for payment of accrued pension rights of FGN retirees and further aggravated by late or non-release of full appropriated amounts.”
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