‘PenCom optimistic of future growth outlook’

National Pension Commission (PenCom) said pension fund portfolios are expected to show continued growth in the fourth quarter of 2018.

It said however that yields on Government Securities are expected to increase as government attempts to stem the outflow of Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPI) due to the approaching election cycle in 2019.

These facts which were contained in the Commission’s 2018 third quarter report made available on its website said it is also envisaged that the inflation rate would continue its downward trend, from the average inflation rate recorded in third quarter, 2018 (11.22 percent) .

It added that overall, pension fund portfolios are expected to show continued growth in fourth quarter, 2018, on the back of monthly receipts of pension contributions, which continue to average N50 billion.”

PenCom said it is expected that the equity market will continue its downward trend in the fourth quarter of 2018 as global and domestic challenges persist including declining oil prices, forthcoming elections in 2019 and subdued performance expectations on quoted company results in 2018.

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) said it has recovered pension contributions and interest totaling N564.67 million from defaulting employers during the third quarter of 2018.

engaged the services of recovery agents to recover the outstanding pension contributions and penalties from the defaulting employers, adding that the affected employers were issued with demand notices to remit the outstanding pension contributions after their liabilities had been established by the agents.

It said some of the employers had remitted the outstanding contributions and penalty.It said the recovered contributions in the quarter represented a principal contribution of N199.01 million and a penalty of N365.67 million.

This, PenCom said, brought the total recoveries made to date to N14.95 billion, comprising principal contribution of N7.62 billion and penalty of N7.32 billion.

On transfer of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) contributions to members Retirement Saving Account (RSA), PenCom said 741 NSITF applications totaling N46.50 million was received, processed and the amount transferred to RSAs of members.

According to the commission, N9.82 billion has been transferred to the RSAs of 136,578 NSITF contributors to date.

On monthly NSITF scheme pensions, the commission processed pension payments totaling N59.00 million for 3,470 NSITF pensioners during the quarter.

It said the total pension payment to NSITF pensioners’ was N4.32 billion during the quarter under review.

It further said the total monthly pension contribution made by contributors from both the public and private sectors was N4.94 trillion.

This, it said, showed an increase of N171.74 billion, representing 3.60 percent over the total contributions made at the end second quarter 2018.

It said a review of the aggregate total contribution showed that 50.85 percent of the contributions came from the public sector, while the private sector contributed the remaining 49.15 percent.

It, however, said contributions from the public sector amounted to 45.71 percent of the total contributions received during the third quarter while the private sector contributed 54.29 percent during the same period.

According to the commission, the aggregate total pension contributions of the private sector increased from N2.33 trillion as at second quarter of 2018 to N2.43 trillion in third quarter 2018.

This, it said, represented a growth of 3.99 percent, whereas, the aggregate total pension contribution of the public sector increased by 3.23 percent from N2.43 trillion to N2.51 trillion over the same period.

On implementation of Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) by state governments, PenCom said state governments continued to make progress in the level of implementation of the CPS.

“As at the end of the third quarter of 2018, 24 states of the federation had enacted laws on the CPS while six states were at the bill stage.

It, however, said five states had decided to adopt a pension scheme other than the CPS.

“In this regard, two states had already drafted pension reform bills that are undergoing legislative processes, one state had not commenced reforming its pension system.’’

Apart from state governments, enacting laws on the CPS, the commission said 12 out of the 36 states had commenced remittance of contributions into the RSAs of their employees.