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Contributory pension fund grows to N4.7tn

By on March 14, 2015

Nigerian workers have saved more than N4.7tn under the Contributory Pension Scheme, the Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mr. Benjamin Dikki, has said.

Dikki said this when a delegation led by the Ambassador of the European Union to Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States, Mr. Michel Arrion, visited him, according to a statement made available to our correspondent by the BPE spokesperson, Mr. Chigbo Anichebe, in Abuja on Thursday.

Dikki said the pension reform, which was initiated by the BPE, had impacted positively on the Nigerian economy.

According to him, over 6.5 million people working for 180,586 employers have registered as contributors under the scheme.

In addition, he said 20 Pension Fund Administrators, seven Closed Pension Fund Administrators and four Pension Fund Custodians had so far been registered since the scheme began in 2004.

Dikki said that the total fund under the CPS was over N4.7tn. The funds, he added, had provided stable deposits, enabling banks to lend more on long-term basis.

He said the various reforms carried out by the bureau had impacted positively on the Nigerian economy and that the over-riding objective was to create an enabling environment for private sector investments.

The BPE boss informed the delegation that to sustain the gains of the reforms, the BPE had initiated eight more bills, which were recently transmitted to the National Assembly by the Federal Executive Council for enactment into laws.

These are the Railway Bill, Inland Waterways Bill, Ports and Harbour Bill, Federal Roads Authority Bill, National Roads Fund Bill, National Transport Commission Bill, Competition and Consumer Protection Bill and Postal Sector Reform Bill.

Dikki listed housing, national parks, partial privatisation/restructuring of the Bank of Industry and Bank of Agriculture, privatisation of the Nigerian Commodity Exchange and restructuring/commercialisation of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria as some of the other initiatives the bureau was currently prosecuting.

In his remarks, Arrion pledged to partner with the BPE in its reform programme.

According to him, the EU team facilitates regional integration through the promotion of peace that is required for investments to thrive.

The ambassador stated that the EU’s major areas of intervention were in power, agriculture, food security and water resources and that the European Investment Bank could assist to finance sector studies.

 

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