The Director General of National Pension Commission (PenCom) has disclosed that the total asset under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) is now N14.5 trillion.
The PenCom DG, Aisha Dahiru-Umar, disclosed this during an interactive session on the 2021/2022 budget defence and presentation of the 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), to the Senate Committee on Finance.
The DG while answering questions revealed thatthe total assets under CPS is now N14.5 trillion, made up of three categories of funds, the Retirement Savings Account Fund, the Closed Pension Fund Asset and the Existing Scheme Assets. She further said that, 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.
According to Pension’s tracks Status of Contributory Pension Assets HERE and the last report officially released by PenCom was as at July 2022 when the total assets under CPS was N14.36 trillion. The N14.5 trillion disclosed by the PenCom DG is expected to be as at 31 August 2022, Pension Nigeria will release a breakdown of the N14.5 trillion when the report is officially released by PenCom
In the same evein,The Pension Commission has disclosed that it refunded N4.27 Billion to Zamfara State Government and its employees due to their withdrawal from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
PenCom said it had concluded the refund of pension contributions to the Zamfara State Government and its employees following the repeal of the State Law on the CPS and enactment of a new Law on Contributory Defined Benefit Scheme (CDBS).
PenCom disclosed that, from inception of CPS, eleven (11) PFAs that operated in Zamfara State before the repeal of the State’s law on CPS received a total sum of ₦3,859,385,198.55 as pension contributions for employees of the State, the amount generated an income of ₦794,187,283.33 making a total sum of ₦4,653,572,481.88.
Out of the ₦4,653,572,481.88, a total sum of ₦4,274,345,932.78 had since been refunded to the Zamfara State Government and its employees in line with the provisions of Section 55(2) of the Zamfara State and Local Government Pension Scheme Law 2019, while the sum of N379,226,546.10 was retained in the Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) of employees that secured jobs with other employers.
What lies ahead for Retirees
The Contributory Pension Scheme is transparent, trackable and the funds for pension are gradually taken away from the employer and managed by independent companies, to ensure that funds are available for payment of pension when needed. With Zamfara State repealing its Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) for Contributory Defined Benefit Scheme (CDBS), the State could be moving towards the old era of hidden, un-trackable and unfunded pension system.
Pension Nigeria reports that in National Pension Commission (PenCom) report as at June 2022, it was disclosed that Zamfara State repealed the Law on CPS and enacted a Law on the CDBS in 2019 but as at June 2022 they are yet to establish a Pension Bureau to drive the CBDS, yet to commence deduction and remittance of pension contributions under the CDBS and most importantly, yet to conduct an Actuarial Valuation to determine the status of funding of the Pension Scheme.
