Pension Assets Grow By 3.26%

According to the fourth quarter 2021 report of the National Pension Commission, the total value of Nigeria’s pension fund assets as at 31 December 2021 grew by 3.26 percent Quarter-on-Quarter to N13.42 trillion from N13.01 trillion recorded in September, 2021.

PenCom said the growth was mainly due to pension contributions received and market valuation of the Federal Government of Nigeria, FGN, bonds and equities as details of the report show that the bulk of the pension fund assets was invested in FGN securities accounting for over 65 per cent of the pension assets.

Breakdown Analysis

Further analysis shows that investment in FGN securities increased by 6.7 per cent to N8.77 trillion in December 2021 from N8.22 trillion recorded in September. Also, the investments in FGN securities shows that investment in FGN Bonds increased by 2.3 per cent to N8.3 trillion in December from N7.8 trillion in September.

Investment in Nigerian Treasury Bills declined by 9.9 per cent to N255.7 billion from N283.9 billion, agency bonds increased by 3.9 per cent to N14.3 billion from N13.8 billion, Sukuk Bonds increased by 48.3 per cent to N118.3 billion from N79.8 billion, while Green Bonds increased by 394.6 per cent to N59.3 billion from N11.9 billion.

PenCom, in the report, stated: “The growth in Q4 2021 was higher than the growth of N343.99 billion or 2.72 per cent recorded in Q3:2021, mainly due to contributions received and market valuation of FGN bonds and equities.

“The increase in the value of investments in FGN Securities was majorly due to additional investments in this asset class during the quarter.”

According to PenCom, the cumulative Retirement Savings Account, RSA, registrations grew by 0.72 per cent at the end of Q4’21 to 9,529,127 from 9,461,173 recorded in Q3’21. This was mainly attributed to an increased level of compliance by the private sectors.

Kehinde Ogunyale

Reporting on the data-driven economy, and investigations.

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