PENCOM Lauds Consistent Growth In Pension Assets

The Director, Corporate Communications Department, National Pension Commission, PENCOM, Mr. Ibrahim Garba Buwai says pension assets which are in excess of N18 trillion are not existing in isolation.

The Director who spoke during the Annual General Meeting of the Finance Correspondent Association of Nigeria, Abuja expressed satisfaction with the pension assets being in the public domain as proof that the commission is working transparently, as issues of people helping themselves with pension money in the past no longer exists.

Mr. Buwai said for the first time, a scheme that is based on funds being managed by private operators have succeeded, a testament of its resilience as confirmed by the consistent rise of pension assets.

“Every kobo in that N18 trillion actually belong to an RSA holder, a worker or a retiree. These funds are been consistently invested and the returns are automatically distributed back to the RSA holder except for the little allowable charges for the management and distribution of the pension funds.I want us to follow it in that it belongs to pension contributors and retirees”.

He explained that both the regulator and operator, have a fiduciary responsibility to carry out on behalf of contributors and retirees to ensure that these funds are safe, efficiently and effectively managed, and that they are available to be paid as retirement benefits when due.

When commenting on the investment of pension funds, Mr. Buwai assured Retirement Savings Account holders of the safety of their monies as they are invested in various investable outlets among which are infrastructure funds and infrastructure bonds.

“Direct investment in infrastructure is not allowed, and that is what takes care of your concerns and the concerns of the public that the funds are going to be lost, by the time you go through this structure, it is investment professionals that give you hosts of guidelines, which unfortunately, because the guidelines are stringent that is why we are not seeing much traction on our part, because the safety of pension funds remain the cardinal principle of our regulations. We are not wavering, we have not made it lax or easy. All those stringent guidelines that were thoroughly outlined so that pension funds might be protected in the event that these investment instruments might be available, those stringent requirements remain”.

On the issue of remitting deductions from employees the Director noted that PENCOMs enforcement and compliance department continues to come up with strategies that would ensure full remittance. He urged the RSA holders to take
necessary action if they realize that their remittances are not done, as they have a strong role to play because these remittances ultimately belongs to them as workers. Mr. Buwai said a worker can write an anonymous letter or use the whistle blower framework to report such cases.

The PENCOM spokes person further said that
on the case of uncredited contributions, complaints should be made using the appropriate channels to enable them follow up and recover the fund, noting that from the inception of Recovery Agents Programmes in 2012 to 31st December, 2023, the principal contributions that were recovered were about N12.9 billion while the penalty on defaulters was about N12.5 million.

“The good thing is that all this penalty and principal goes into the individual RSA.Nobody takes a penny, not PFAs, not PenCom, nobody”.

Mr. Buwai who also spoke on the micro pension plan stated that it provides a window for people in the informal sector to participate in the Contributory Pension Scheme by giving them an opportunity to save for retirement. He added that while a lot of effort continue to go into enlightening the informal sector so they know the micro pension plan exists, both PENCOM and the pension operators are collaborating in terms of ensuring that they enlightened people not only through the media but through participation in activities like trade fairs and roadshows.

Umbwanko Baba, Edited By Grace Namiji