Pension Fund Administrators operating in the country invested about N689.22bn pension funds in nine out of the 11 approved investment assets in the 2009 and 2010 financial periods.According to figures obtained from the National Pension Commission, the highest portion of N258.72bn was invested in local money market securities, while N204.06bn was invested in shares.Investment in Federal Government of Nigerian securities, real estate and corporate bonds gulped N152.64bn, N37.07bn and N10.12bn; while N10.09bn was invested in cash and other assets.During the periods under review, N9.1bn, N5.8bn and N1.62bn were invested in state government bonds, unquoted equities and open/close-end funds.Currently, the total pension assets under the contributory pension scheme stand at N2.4tn.The Director-General, PenCom, Mr. Muhammad Ahmad, said that the pension industry operated in an atmosphere of favourable macroeconomic environment in 2010.He observed that the capital market, which represents one of the platforms for investing pension funds, witnessed improved performance in 2010 compared to 2009 as shown by the improvements in some stock market indicators.The bond market continued to serve as safety alternative for the investment of pension funds, which were mostly put in FGN bonds with term to maturity of below seven years, Ahmad said.According to him, the pension industry has a promising future with sustainable government support in creating the enabling environment for the industry to grow, as well as the continuous support of all stakeholders.He assured that PenCom would maintain its risk-based philosophy in order to promote transparency, provide early warning signals and encourage pension operators to regularly self-evaluate their activities, particularly their investment decisions.A dynamic investment monitoring process, he added, would continue to be pursued in line with changes in the operating environment.The PenCom boss added that the commission would continue to be proactive in its regulatory and supervisory activities, and leverage on the reforms in the banking and non-banking financial sectors to promote growth of pension fund assets and ensure fair returns on pension fund investments.He said, The commission would leverage on state-of-the-art information and communication technology to enhance its surveillance and supervisory activities of the industry.He assured that the deployment of the risk management and analysis system would enable PenCom to obtain direct information on different activities of the Pension Fund Operators to ensure a safe and sound industry.
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