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PFAs invest N195.34bn pension funds in real estate

By BusinessNews Staff on October 17, 2013

A total of N195.34bn out of the assets under the Contributory Pension Scheme has been invested in the real estate sector by Pension Fund Administrators, investigation has shown.

Also, as part of ongoing efforts at enhancing contributors’ satisfaction, the National Pension Commission is currently exploring the possibility of allowing contributors to utilise part of their Retirement Savings Account balance to part-finance the acquisition of low-cost houses.

According to figures obtained from the NPC on Monday, the total funds under the scheme reached N3.6tn as of the end of August this year.

From the statistics, the amount invested in the real estate market accounts for five per cent of the total funds.

The Acting-Director General, PenCom, Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, said that the commission had remained steadfast in the implementation of the CPS such that in a few years of existence, some modest achievements had been made.

“Foremost among such achievements is the consistent payment of retirement benefits to all employees, who retired under the scheme since 2007 without the characteristic bottlenecks experienced in the past,” she said.

According to her, there is also the generation of a large pool of funds invested in various financial instruments, which marks a phenomenal growth when compared with the huge estimated pension liabilities in the public sector prior to the reform in 2004.

She said 5.61 million contributors had been registered with the CPS since inception.

She stated that the commission had also reviewed its investment regulations with a view to facilitating the investment of pension funds towards reducing the huge infrastructure gap in the country.

“It is worthy to mention that already, several states of the federation have so far benefited from the pool of funds generated by the CPS through the issuance of development bonds,” she said.

Anohu-Amazu said that the process of a major amendment to the Pension Reform Act 2004 was at the final stage of consideration by the National Assembly.

The PenCom boss also said that the commission embarked on the establishment of zonal offices in all the six geopolitical zones of the country in a bid to decentralise its activities and bring it closer to the contributors and retirees.

She said with its presence in the South-West zone now, it expected all stakeholders to avail themselves of its services by visiting its office to make enquiries, lodge complaints and seek enlightenment on the CPS.

“Due to our renewed focus on efficient service delivery, we seek to reduce the need for contributors and retirees to travel from various parts of the country to Abuja for the singular reason of accessing our services,” she added.

[Punch]

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