Nigeria’s pension fund assets under management rose 4.6 percent in the first quarter (Q1) of 2019, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says.
The assets rose to N9.03 trillion from N8.63 trillion recorded in 2018, NBS notes in a report released Thursday.
The NBS explains that FGN Bonds had the highest weight percentage at 49.37 percent of the total pension fund assets, closely followed by treasury bills with 21.44 percent weight and local money market securities with 9.68 percent weight, while foreign money market securities had the least with 0.25 percent weight.
A breakdown of the components of the assets in the period under review shows that domestic ordinary shares were valued N590.61 billion, foreign ordinary shares stood at N62.60 billion, FGN bond valued at N4.458 trillion, treasury bills at N1.936 trillion, Agency bond (NMRC and FMBN) was valued at N11.9 billion, Sukuk bonds were valued at N94.11 billion, and the Green bonds at N8.51 billion.
A further breakdown shows that state government securities were valued at N144.31 billion, cooperate debt securities, Supra-national bond, local money market securities, foreign money market securities, and mutual funds were valued at N478.10 billion, N5.37 billion, N874.40 billion, N22.54 billion and N24.96 billion, respectively.
The value of other assets includes: real estate properties at N231.37 billion, private equity fund at N32.34 billion, Infrastructure fund at N29.40 billion, cash and other assets at N25.17 billion.
A study of the report shows that participants within the age distribution 30-39 years had the highest percentage composition with 35.77 percent closely followed by participants within the age bracket of 40-4 9 years and 50-59 years with 28.12 percent and 18.02 percent, respectively, while participants above 65 years have the least percentage composition with 2.78 percent.
The total membership Data Q1 2019 reflected that 8,569,037 workers were registered under the pension scheme compared with 8,410,184 registered workers in Q4 2018. Of the total number registered, 4,928,179 represent the private sector workers while 3,640,858 represent the public sector.
Meanwhile, the National Pension Commission (PenCom) has concluded plans to hold the 2019 pre-retirement workshops for staff of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) who are due to retire in 2020.
According to a statement signed by Peter Aghahowa, head, corporate communication at PENCOM, the workshop is designed to educate the prospective retirees on the modalities for accessing retirement benefits under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
The workshop will hold between June 17 and 25, 2019 at 15 centres across the six geo-political zones of the federation and FCT, it said.
The centres scheduled for the exercise include: Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt, Ilorin, Gombe, Bauchi. Others are Owerri, Sokoto, Enugu, Lokoja, Ibadan, Lafia and Benin City.
The commission also stressed that medically unfit employees were exempted from the exercise.
