Nigeria’s biggest pension fund administrator (PFA), Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited, has commenced a push to bring new customers into its pension services.
“Our central objective in launching this awareness drive is to enhance convenience and accessibility by providing our customers with the choice to engage Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers the way they prefer,” Demola Sogunle stated Chief Executive of Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited, said.
“This is in line with our commitment to respond to the ever-changing preferences and needs of our customers by deploying the appropriate tools and technology.”
In almost nine years of existence, Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers have emerged Nigeria’s biggest PFA with over one million retirement savings account holders and assets under management of over N950 billion.
Nigeria’s N3.7 trillion ($23.2 billion) pension fund is growing fast with assets currently rising at $2.5bn a year, or roughly 1 percent of GDP, per annum.
Pension assets in Africa’s second largest economy have surged twelvefold from N265 bn or about 1.4 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2006 to today’s level, equivalent to 8.5 percent of GDP.
There are only about 5 million people (10 percent of the working age population) contributing to the scheme with a wall of liquidity (about N5.9 trillion) sitting in bank accounts outside of pension assets.
The Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers mobile office, which was launched last year, has proven a revolutionary initiative, Sogunle emphasized, as pension services are brought to the doorsteps of customers and prospective customers alike.
He said plans are currently being finalized to deploy more mobile offices in various cities across the country.
Sogunle said the Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers will continuously innovate and help to enhance industry best practices, part of which includes creating awareness about the benefits of retirement savings and helping workers plan for that eventuality.
He said Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited was set up with a mission to enable Nigerians retire to a life of relative comfort and peace after their working lives.
Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Ltd is a subsidiary of Stanbic IBTC Holdings, a member of Standard Bank Group, a full service financial services group with a clear focus on three main business pillars – Corporate and Investment Banking, Personal and Business Banking and Wealth Management. Standard Bank Group is the largest African bank by assets and earnings.
Apart from its offices across the country, the PFA listed other service channels available to customers to include the website, mobile app, online chat, email, SMS Short code, mobile offices and Stanbic IBTC Bank ATMs. Others are the 24-hour multilingual call centre, Stanbic IBTC Bank branches and selected branches of Zenith Bank.
