PFAs stake N8.51trn pension funds on FGN securities
- As pension assets rebound to surpass N12trn
Appetite for federal government securities among Pension Funds Administrators (PFAs) in Nigeria has remained unmatched by other investment outlets available in the market.
Pension funds staked on the federal government securities as at the end of March this year stood at N8.51 trillion, representing 68.96 per cent of total pension assets in the country.
FGN bond HTM and Treasury billion accounted for N7.7 trillion and N721 billion while investment in the agency bond, sukuk and green bond were worth N12 billion, N85 billion and N109 billion respectively.
Meanwhile, the latest report on pension assets released by the Nations Pension Commission (PenCom) showed that aggregate value of pension assets in the country retraced its steps to the green territory to hit N12.34 trillion as at the end of March, after suffering N51.3 billion decline in February.
The initial losses were attributed to depreciation in the prices of Fixed Income Securities (FIS) in the trading portfolios of the Approved Existing Schemes (AES), RSA Funds II & IV and Closed Pension Fund Administrators (CPFA).
According to the unaudited report on pension funds industry portfolio obtained Saturday by Business Metrics from the official website of the Nigerian Pension Commission (PenCom), the number of retirement saving accounts (RSA) inched up by 0.38 per cent reaching a total of 9,300,058 in march.
The report also showed that corporate debt securities reached N620 billion during the period under review. Of this amount, corporate bond was valued at N595 billion while corporate infrastructure bonds and corporate green bond were valued at N10.8 billion and N14 billion respectively.
Bank placement and commercial papers which makes up the local money market securities recorded N1.58 trillion and N91 billion respectively while foreign money market securities N8 billion in march 2021.
While mutual funds made up N147 billion, other items such as real estate properties and private equity funds reached N156 billion and N33 billion and infrastructure funds as well as cash and other assets stood at N66 billion and N76 billion respectively.
