Pension Assets Rise By 0.8% To N13trn

Total Pension assets of the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS, increased by 0.8 per cent Month-on-Month, MoM, to N13 trillion in September 2021 from N12.9 trillion recorded in August 2021.

According to the unaudited report on pension funds industry portfolio for the period which ended 30 September 2021 obtained from the National Pension Commission, PenCom, the total Retirement Savings Account (RSA) registration rose marginally by 0.4 per cent to 9.5 million from 9.4 million recorded in August.

A breakdown of the figures shows that investment in federal government securities declined by 0.8 per cent to N8.2 trillion from N8.3 trillion.

Further analysis reveals that investments in federal government bonds declined by 0.7 per cent to N7.83 trillion from N7.78 trillion; treasury bills investments went down by 30.9 per cent to N283.9 billion from N410.8 billion.

Also investments in agency bonds declined by five per cent to N13 billion from N14 billion while investments in Sukuk bonds grew by 8.1 per cent to N79.8 billion from N73.8 billion.

Investments in green bonds also declined by 4.3 per cent to N11.9 billion from N11.5 billion.

Meanwhile, analysis of the 2021 second quarter report, Q2’2021, shows that total pension contributions remitted to individual Retirement Savings Accounts, RSAs, stood at N195.08 billion. Out of this total, the public sector accounted for N97.17 billion or 49.81 per cent, while the private sector contributed N97.91 billion or 50.19 per cent.

PenCom noted that the cumulative pension contributions from inception to the end of the second quarter of 2021 amounted to N7.10 trillion, showing an increase from N6.70 trillion as at the end of Q1’ 2021.

“The aggregate pension contributions of the public sector increased from N3.55 trillion to N3.65 trillion as at the end of Q2 ‘2021. Similarly, the aggregate pension contributions of the private sector also increased from N3.36 trillion to N3.46 trillion as at Q2’ 2021.

“A review of RSA registrations in the quarter showed that about 82 per cent of registered individuals were below 40 years of age, which points to the increasing sustainability of the CPS as younger individuals register under the Scheme. Further analysis of the gender distribution revealed that 63 per cent of those registered RSA holders were male, while 37 per cent were female,” PenCom noted.