The FCMB Pension, a subsidiary of FCMB Group Plc, is targeting N1.2trillion assets growth by end of December 2025, with FCMB current statues having over N1.1 trillion in Assets under Management (AUM), with over N200 billion paid to retirees and other beneficiaries, showing resilience and making impact in the country.

Its Managing Director, Christopher Bajowa disclosed this at the 20th anniversary celebration of FCMB Pension in Abuja, noting that the company is planning to be a major player in the industry, with focus on Personal Pension Plan (PPP) as next frontier of pension growth.

He said: “The major challenge has been that of inclusion, as efforts to grow the number of contributors has been a challenge and regulators are focused on these areas (PPP) because of its great potential to grow inclusion, second challenge is naira instability.

“How do you encourage customers to save when the value of their savings is diminishing? There’s a lot of work in this area and even the Federal Government is working on boosting the value of the naira and also creating opportunities for us to access foreign currencies in order to hedge against devaluation if it continues to happen.”

Chronicling the growth of the industry, a Pioneer Managing Director of the FCMB Pensions, Bello Maccido, said the company started as a humble institution that was basically owned by retail individuals that came together to take advantage of the passage of the Pension Reform Act, 2004, with 13 Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) being licensed under the new defined contributory pension scheme.

“Within three years of operation, we were able to break even, and within five years, we were able to post two consecutive years of profitability. By the time I spent five years at Legacy Pension now FCMB Pensions, we were able to sign on 187,000 Retirement Savings Accounts (RSA) and an asset base of N72 billion. We had clients such as Division 1 of the Nigerian Army, CBN, Nipost, and other individual RSM holders from across the length and breadth of this country.

“So, today, 20 years after, I must say that I am very proud of the accomplishment of the successive management of Christopher Bajowa who has taken this company from where it was at inception and taken it to a N1trillion by assets under management. By any imagination, this is a feat that must be acknowledged. We are here to celebrate 20 years of competent management and 20 years of successes,” he said.