Wale Edun, minister of finance has said that the federal government has no intention to illegally use pension funds.
“It has come to my notice that there are stories making the rounds that the Federal Government plans to illegally access the hard-earned savings and pension contributions of workers. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Edun disclosed in a press release.
Earlier this week news circulated the media of the government intention to use N20 trillion pension fund and other local resources for infrastructure development in Nigeria.
Edun said the pension industry, like most of the financial industry, is highly regulated.
“There are rules, and well laid out limitations about what pension fund assets can be invested in, and what it cannot be invested in,” he said.
Edun said that the federal government has no intention whatsoever to go beyond those prescribed limits, or outside those bounds, which are there to safeguard the pensions of workers.
“What was announced at the Federal Executive Council was merely for information purposes only. No approval was sought for any action whatsoever,” he said.
Edun said that the information was that there was an ongoing initiative drawing in all the major stakeholders in the long term savings industry, those that handle funds that are available over a long period to see how, within the rules and regulations set by the law, that could be used maximally, most effectively, to drive investment in key growth areas including infrastructure, housing, and of course, to find a way to provide Nigerians with affordable mortgages.
