Nigeria’s pension fund assets grew to N14.99 trillion as of December 2022, representing a 11.7% growth or N1.5 trillion compared to N13.42 trillion recorded in 2021.
The latest Pension Industry report published by the National Pension Commission (PenCom) indicated that 11.7% growth recorded in year 2022 was 40.2% higher than the N1.12 trillion increase recorded in the previous year.
However, when compared to 2020, the gain was 24.9% lower than the N2.09 trillion increase recorded.
In the year under review, the report showed that the number of Retirement Savings Account (RSA) registrations increased by 333,002 to stand at 9.86 million as of the end of the year.
A further analysis of the report showed that investments in Federal Government securities increased by N870.55 billion to stand at N9.64 trillion, most of which were in form of FBN bonds (N9.22 trillion).
Also, corporate debt securities as of the end of the year increased by 75.99% or N716.86 billion, raising the value to N1.66 trillion, compared to N943.34 billion recorded at the end of 2021 fiscal year.
However, the report showed that investment in money market instruments declined marginally by 2.07% to stand at N1.98 trillion while Real Estate recorded N60.81 billion in additional investments from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) in 2022, bringing its cumulative investment value to N217.6 billion at the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the CPS stood at N1.48 trillion as of December 2022, N124.8 billion higher than the N1.35 trillion recorded as of the beginning of the year. The closed pension fund administrators increased slightly by N46.98 billion to stand at N1.57 trillion at the end of the review year.
According to the report, Fund I totalled N74.229 trillion, while the Fund II category, which has the giant share compared to the other fund grew to N6.5 trillion, representing an increase of N621.98 billion compared to N5.88 trillion recorded as of December 2021.
Also, the Fund III category also increased by N606.74 billion to stand at N4.15 trillion while Fund IV totaled N1.19 trillion, Fund V, N374.94 million; Fund VI, grew to N32.26 billion; and Fund VI retiree accruals stood at N33.94 billion.
Analysts attributed the growth recorded in the Nigerian pension industry in the past three years totalling N4.7 trillion in net assets to improved management by the PenCom.
For instance, in in 2022 the industry underwent some restructuring in form of acquisitions and mergers, as part of the commission’s efforts to create a more competitive pension industry.
