Trustfund Pension plc grows funds under management by 20%

The Retirement Savings Account (RSA) funds of the company also rose within the same period from N163.81 to N196.13 billion, with its retirees funding increasing 8 percent from N24.68 billion in 2013 to N26.69 in 2014.

Managing director of Trustfund, Helen Da-Souza gave the figures at the 7^th annual general meeting (AGM) of the company in Abuja just as the board chairman, Ngozi Olejeme, has pointed to the instability in the capital market and non-payment of salaries as some factors impacting negatively on the performances of Pension Funds Administrators (PFAs)

Olejeme who described 2014 as a stormy year for the pension industry, said: “If one looks at the fact that Trustfund management declared the same 25Kobo dividend in 2013 and 2014, one may not appreciate how the difficulty in the environment in 2014 was.”

Represented by Peter Esele, the board chairman, said “we should not forget that the preparations for the 2015 general elections was at all-time high in 2014, the crash in the price of crude oil in the international market also happened in the same year and non-payment of salaries even at the federal level also took place during that year.

There was also the devaluation of the Naira and we also witnessed the instability of the stock market where we invested about 30% of our money. Overall, we have about 70% of our resources invested in one form of money market or the other. Coupled with all of these, were all the negative forecasts about the outcome of the general elections. All of these were formidable factors that impacted negatively on the performances of businesses. So, for us, to be able to march what was declared in 2013 is a great achievement. We are also very happy that the shareholders showed massive understanding during the trying period. We are hopeful that with an improving operating environment this year, our shareholders will smile more next year.”

Esele noted that despite occasional difficult operating environment, the future for a robust contributory pension scheme is assured.

The chairman explained that with fierce speed corruption is permeating the social fabric of the Nigerian society, it has find it difficult to penetrate the contributory pension scheme owing to the safety guideline put in place to safeguard the funds.

He cautioned government tapping into pension funds for infrastructural development, saying such a move may jeopardize the future of pensioners.

“There are other parts of the world where pension funds are used to stimulate and energize the economy. The question for us in Nigeria is whether we can trust government to protect they funds and use it strictly it is meant for? Can we put our trust in a government that cannot pay salaries? Can we guarantee the safety of our money in the hand of government that runs an ineffective and over-bloated bureaucracy? I think the bottom-line is trust between the people and government,” he said.

The director general of Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA), Segun Oshinowo lauded Trustfund management for navigating the troubled waters to declare a huge dividend that did not reflect the difficulties 2014 brought.

“The shareholders see the reason the management of Trustfund has to declare 25kobo per share dividends and we commend them for their efforts despite formidable difficult operating environment,” Oshinowo said.

 JOSHUA BASSEY