From Kemi Yesufu, Abuja
Director-General of the National Pension Commission (PENCOM), Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, yesterday disclosed that only N1.36 billion out of the sum of N1.16 trillion available for infrastructure financing has been accessed.
Anohu-Amazu made this disclosure at a public hearing on the ‘Need to Invest Pension Funds to Meet Nigeria’s Infrastructure Challenges,’ held at the House of Representatives Committees on Pensions, Finance and Capital Market and Institutions.
Anohu-Amazu said this was largely due to lack of structured investment instruments for pension funds to be invested in the provision of finance for infrastructure development in the country.
A breakdown of the total pension assets invested showed that the sum of N517.76 billion or 9.7 percent was for domestic ordinary shares; N68.35 billion or 1.29 percent for foreign ordinary shares; N3.515 trillion or 66.2 percent for federal government securities; N152.44 billion or 2.87 percent for state government securities; N183.01 billion or 3.45 percent for corporate debt securities while N12.82 billion or 0.24 percent was for supra-national bonds. “It is, therefore, imperative to note that no pension fund asset is uninvested or ‘lying idle’ in any account…”
as is being speculated in some quarters,” she said.
She also assured that the commission is performing it’s statutory role of monitoring the investment activities of the PFAs on daily basis.
Anohu-Amazu, who was represented by PenCom Commissioner, Ebenezer Foby, noted that “pension assets are being invested by the licensed PFAs/CPFA as pool of funds under the custody of licensed pension fund custodians (PFCs).”
She also emphasised profitability of focusing on the development of a bankable infrastructure financing policy in Nigeria that can attract pension funds investment.
Anohu-Amazu further advised on the need have infrastructure projects that are commercially viable and self-financing, open and transparent bid/concession processes for the project, as well as political risk cover to be provided by either the federal government or multilateral finance institutions like the World Bank and the Africa Development Bank (AfDB).