Hold Pencom, operators accountable on pension growth – Ahmad

Hold Pencom, operators accountable on pension growth – Ahmad

Chuks Udo Okonta

 The Director General National Pension Commission (PenCom) Mohammad Ahmad, has called on stakeholders to hold the commission and pension operators accountable to ensure continuous growth of the industry.

Ahmad, who spoke in Lagos, said the pension reform has positively impacted on the Nigerian economy, and would continue to do so considering the rapid accumulation of funds.

He urged stakeholders to ensure the sustainability of the reform and promote wider compliance with the Pension Reform Act (PRA).

He called for general awareness campaigns particularly for the business community to move the industry forward. He also canvassed the need for enhance regulatory and supervisory framework, simplify and streamline processes for corporate debt issuance and approval, fast track the enactment of the law to back securitization of assets and provide sustainable and reasonable concessions on a holistic basis for infrastructure projects and investment funds.

Ahmad stressed on the need for increased private sector participation in the key sectors of the economy through: full implementation of all necessary and critical reforms especially on fiscal policy reform, financial sector reforms, tax reform and power reform.

He also called for appropriate legal, regulatory and supervisory frameworks in place to support these reforms, use of carrot and stick approach to get some large corporate listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE)and institutional Investors should be active in promoting better corporate governance.

He said: “The banking sector is yet to effectively & efficiently finance the real sector of the economy, bridge the infrastructural gaps and provide affordable housing in Africa, due to the short term nature of its deposit liabilities and cost of funds.

“Stable, long term and relatively cheaper funds for sustainable economic development can only be effectively mobilized through the reforms in pension & capital market, supported by a healthy banking system”

Ahmad said pension funds act as intermediaries into a lot of financial assets, including corporate equities and government bonds, and also provide long term financial intermediation to the real sector through corporate debt instruments and through investment funds.

“In some jurisdictions, pension funds acquire long-term money market instruments issued by banks, allowing the banks to issue loans to the corporate clients with varying maturities,” he said.