The National Pension Commission on Monday said that the asset in the Contributory Pension Scheme which was kick-started in 2004 has grown to over N5tn.
It also said that the need to ensure adequate security of the fund was a major reason why the commission had yet to approve the investment of the fund in infrastructure.
The Director-General, National Pension Commission, Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, stated these while speaking at the second edition of the World Pension Summit Africa Special.
The summit with the theme “Building Sustainable Pension Systems in Africa” was designed to stir up practical and enduring strategies for pension fund regulation on the Continent.
This is the second consecutive time Nigeria would be hosting the international event.
The PenCom DG said the commission had begun the implementation of some of the recommendations that were made during last year’s summit.
Some of them, according to her were the introduction of the Micro Pension Plan which would be launched before the end of this year, and the guidelines that allowed Retirement Savings Account holders to use a portion of their RSA for home acquisition.
She said, “The Nigerian Pension Reform narrative can be situated within the context of Africa’s economic resurgence.
“Indeed, from operating the old Defined Benefits System that had well over N2tn in deficit at the dusk of the last century, the new Contributory Pension Scheme that was kick started in 2004 now has over N5tn in just over ten years of operation.
“The first World Pension Summit Africa special 2014 was done in conjunction with our tenth anniversary and part of the take out of that was what informed the theme of this session.
“So we have harnessed all the thoughts and all the discussions and we have started putting them into practice which is what informed our micro pension plan which would be launched before the end of the year as well as our guideline for the access for mortgages allowing Retirement Savings Account contributors to use a portion of their RSA for acquisition of their primary homes.”
