According to Aisha Dahir Umar, the Director General of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), the total assets under the Retirement Savings Account (RSA) with the Commission are currently worth N14.5 trillion.
PenCom exists for the effective regulation and supervision of the Nigerian Pension Industry to ensure that retirement benefits are paid as and when due.
The DG was been quizzed by members of the House Committee on Finance when revealed the information.
According to Umar, “the total assets under management is now N14.5 trillion, made up of three funds: the retirement savings account fund, the Closed Pension Fund Asset (CPFA), and the Assets in Existing Scheme.
“Out of the N14.5 trillion, the RSA Fund is about N11 trillion, the CPFA has N1.5 trillion and the AES has about N1.4 trillion. These funds are in the accounts of the contributors.
It is not being kept by PenCom; it is not being kept by the pension fund administrators (PFAs). It is not anywhere but in the account of the contributors, just like the commercial banks.”
The head of PenCom noted that the organization was created to regulate the pension business and that its primary responsibility is to oversee and regulate all pension-related activities nationwide. As a result, it is not a revenue-generating organization.
Reacting to claims by the FRC that PenCom had been listed as a government revenue agency, Umar said: “If they have put us on the schedule, we have not been advised. In 2017, PenCom, as a responsible citizen, decided to be paying surplus, even though it was not on the list. And each time we pay, we get a commendation from the Ministry of Finance. So, even when we were not asked to pay, we paid.
“I want the committee to know that long before the Ministry of Finance included PenCom on its list, it was not a revenue-generating agency.
By the provisions of the establishment Act, all incomes earned from investments earned from the Retirement Savings Account are credited back to the RSA of the contributors. Nobody takes a single kobo from it…”
