Business News of Tuesday, 2 January 2024
Source: guardian.ng
Pension sector stakes N303.58b in MTN, Dangote
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Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) said a total of N303.58 billion has been invested in MTN Nigeria Series I and Dangote Industries Series I as of the second quarter of 2023.
This was revealed by the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp) at a seminar tagged: ‘At the dawn of 20 years of pension reform, what are the gains?’ organised by the association in Lagos.
In his presentation at the forum, the Chief Executive Officer, PenOp, Oguche Agudah, said the investment formed part of corporate debt securities of the pension fund asset portfolio.
PenOp also said that N400 billion was invested in energy power; N40 billion in Flour Mills of Nigeria and N11.7 billion in Unity Capital Series 11. Another N100 billion was invested in LFZC Special Purpose Vehicle and N45 billion in Shelter Afrique Series 1.
It disclosed that N25 billion was invested in Ardova Series 1; N115 billion in BUA and N34 billion in Prescott Plc.He noted that the Pension Fund Operators (PFOs) also grew workers’ pension contributions by over N8 trillion.
He explained that the total funds under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) stood at N17.64 trillion as of October 2023, while contributions made by workers from both private and public sectors were over N9 trillion.
Oguche said that workers’ contributions accounted for 54 per cent of the fund, while the return on investment accounted for 46 per cent of the entire pension fund assets as of the end of June 2023.
He added that workers’ contributions were judiciously invested and that the returns were added to the workers’ pension savings to reduce the effect of inflation on the funds.
Further details showed that as of the end of the third quarter of 2023, the PFAs had recovered N24.8 billion from defaulting employers, The PenOp chief noted that in the second quarter, N665.13 billion had been paid as a lump sum to annuity retirees while N964.24 billion went to programmed withdrawal retirees, making a total of N1.64 trillion that was paid to 442,000 retirees.
