TheCable

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) says the total assets under the contributory pension scheme (CPS) rose to N11.34 trillion as at the end of August 2020.

This was contained in its recent report, titled: ‘Summary of pension fund assets as at August 31, 2020’.

According to the report, N7.51 trillion (66.27 percent) of the total pension fund assets were invested in the federal government of Nigeria (FGN) securities.

These securities include treasury bills; FGN bonds, Sukuk; agency and green bonds.

Other areas where the funds were invested are the corporate debt and local money market securities; mutual funds; and the domestic and foreign ordinary shares.

The report added that as at August, the total number of retirement savings account (RSA) registered increased from 9.06 million to 9.10 million.

In the commission’s report for the second quarter of 2020 (Q2 2020), it said that following the issuance of demand notices to some defaulting employers whose outstanding pension contribution liabilities had been established by recovery agents, 16 of the affected employers remitted N261.33 million during the period.

PenCom said this represents a principal contribution of N152.79 million and penalty of N108.54 million during Q2 2020.

In the commission’s Q2 2020 report, it said the pension fund administrators (PFAs) 2,839 contributors under the micro pension plan, remitted a total of N7.4 million to the RSAs as pension contributions.

Also in the same quarter, it said the PFAs recaptured 56,990 RSA holders and uploaded their data to the enhanced contributory registration system (ECRS).

PenCom further said the growth in the industry’s membership was driven by the RSA scheme, which had an increase of 41,147 contributors, representing 0.46 percent.