The Nigerian pension asset under the Contributory Pension Scheme established by the Pension Reform Act 2004 and amended in 2014 has grown to N5.03 trillion, industry regulator, the National Pension Commission, has said.
The amount, which has continued to grow at about 30 percent on annual basis, provides a good source of long-term financing to support the nation’s infrastructure need, which according to analysts, presents a great opportunity to tackle the country’s over 17 million housing deficit.
Chinelo Anobhu-Amazu, director-general, PenCom, who disclosed the figure at the South-South sensitisation conference on developments ushered in by the Pension Reform Act 201, in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, said it was heart warming to note that within a decade of the implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme in Nigeria, the story of pension administration was changing into a positive narrative.
“The Scheme has so far delivered all the major objectives of the reform. We are proud to state that since its establishment 11 years ago, there had been no case of malpractice recorded in the administration of the Contributory Pension Scheme in Nigeria,” she said.
Anohu-Amazu, who was represented by Muhammed Kaoje, commissioner for inspectorate, PenCom, said the Commission’s achievements in the implementation of CPS had earned Nigeria a position as Africa’s hub on pension matters.
She however observed that though many states had adopted the CPS and were at various stages of its implementation, no state in the South-South geo-political zone had fully implemented the Contributory Pension Scheme.
“This situation has denied the states the obvious advantages of the Contributory Pension model including its sustainability as a system, robust framework that eliminates the incentives for corruption in benefits administration and ability to access the pool of investible pension funds to drive economic and infrastructural development in their respective domains,” she said.
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