Pension Gross assets value dips N6.9bn in one month despite rise in RSA

By Zainab Iwayemi

The total gross assets value has dropped to N6.9 billion, representing a 0.06 percent fall in January 2021 compared to the amount recorded in December 2020 despite that the total Retirement Savings Account (RSA) rose during the period, a new report from the National Pension Commission (PenCom) has revealed.

The unaudited report, which highlighted the pension funds industry portfolio for the period that ended January 31, 2021 shows that the total gross assets value for the period amounted to N12.299 trillion as against that which was recorded in December at N12.306 trillion. While the RSA increased in number by 21,053 to close at 9.24 million.

Also, the domestic ordinary shares and foreign ordinary shares amounted to N920 billion and N88 billion respectively compared to the N858 billion and N92 billion recorded in the previous month. In addition, the total FGN securities was valued at N8 trillion. Out of this, the FGN bonds, Sukuk and Green bond had N7.33 trillion, N82.5 billion and N10.2 billion which represents a drop compared to the previous month’s at N7.38 trillion, N93.6 billion and N13.8 billion respectively, while the Treasury bill and agency bond rose to N670 billion and N12 billion respectively.

Furthermore, the state government securities and the corporate debt securities at N133.5 and N835.8 signifies a N3 billion and N579 million decline respectively while the local market securities; consisting of bank placement and commercial papers also dipped by N40 billion altogether.

The mutual funds, which entails the open/closed-end funds and the real estate investment trust, was valued at N75 billion and N86 billion respectively while the foreign money market securities was valued at N17 billion. Additionally, while real estate with cash and other assets surged by N120 million and N4.6 billion, private equities funds and infrastructure funds fell by N742 million and N1.2 billion respectively.

Meanwhile, in the fourth quarter report released by PenCom, the industry regulator noted that 3.5 million RSAs belonging to employees of state governments and private sector organizations had remained unfunded as at the end of Q4 2020. It also noted that as at Q4 2020, 5.1 million RSAs had incomplete documentation, an issue that is expected to be resolved through the engagement of agents to conduct data recapture on behalf of all the PFAs.

In its efforts to encourage contributors however, the commission mandated the Pension Operators to ensure resolution of all outstanding un-credited contributions and file progress reports at regular intervals.