The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has reaffirmed the current standing of Nigeria’s pension assets under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) at N8.23 trillion. According to data released at the weekend, the bureau said N8.23 trillion was recorded in the second quarter of 2018 as against N7.943 trillion recorded in the first quarter. The NBS disclosed this in its “Pension Asset and Membership Data (Q2 2018)” report released in Abuja. According to NBS, the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) bonds have the highest weight percentage of 49.08 per cent of the total PFA. It said this was closely followed by treasury bills with 20.76 per cent weight and Domestic Ordinary Shares with 8.62 per cent weight while Green bonds have the least with 0.09 per cent weight. According to the bureau, 8,136,202 workers were registered under the pension scheme in the period under review, compared to 7,975,976 registered workers in the first quarter.
It said participants within the age distribution of 30 to 39 had the highest percentage composition closely followed by participants within the age bracket of 40-49 years and 50-59 years. Besides, it said that participants with ages above 65 years had the least percentage composition in the period under review. As part of the investment by the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), a fresh N420 billion was put into Federal Government securities within a period of five months. According to an earlier data released by the sector regulator, National Pension Commission (PenCom), the amount was part of the total N630 billion contributed by the workers to their various PFAs between January and May this year. According to the investment breakdown, as at last December, FGN bonds got N4.04 trillion; treasury bills, N1.18 trillion; agency bond (NMRC & FMBN) N5.82 billion; Sukuk bonds, N56.55 billion and green bonds, N7.19 billion.
However, as at May 2018, FGN bonds got N3.96 trillion; treasury bills, N1.68 trillion; agency bond (NMRC & FMBN) N6.54 billion; Sukuk bonds, N51.98 billion and green bonds, N8.26 billion. To further grow the assets, PenCom is putting finishing touches to the implementation of micropension scheme, which is expected to accommodate more contributors.
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