Chairman of the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria, Mr. Misbahu Yola, has said the pension assets under the Contributory Pension Scheme can be invested in projects targeted at economic development.
He said this after a meeting on developments in the pension industry with operators in Lagos.
“The ideal thing is to use the pool of funds for economic development but it has to be done in a safe manner where people’s assets are protected and we have no objection to that,” he said.
As at the end of 2014 financial period, the pension assets managed by the Pension Fund Administrators and Pension Fund Custodians had risen to N4.6tn.
He said that presently, more than half of the funds had been invested Federal Government of Nigeria’s bonds which were developmental bonds. All the invested needed, he added were the right investment instruments with appropriate checks and balances to guide and regulate them.
According to him, there have to be certain safety criteria before the funds could be invested because the money does not belong to the general public but belongs to only the contributors.
He assured that despite the lull in the economic and challenges visible, the pension assets had remained safe and well protected because the operators have not lost any money.
Presently, he said the operators were working on a frame work to bring the informal sector into the scheme because there is an obvious of gap between workers working in Nigeria and those that the operators had registered under the CPS.
We only need a framework that will enhance identity, and be able to educate the artisans so that they would understand pension as opposed to savings, which would enable them to appreciate the essence of saving for retirement.
Yola also said there was also process of introducing the minimum pension guarantee which aims to guarantee minimum pension for retirees.
He however said it requires funding because the law has said that it will be funded by the government and PenCom and operators but that, the specific ratio of funding had not yet been worked on for the operators
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