National Telescope national telescope newspaper
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) on Monday denied giving the Federal Government a loan of N10 million from its pension savings.
This is as the Commission’s Director-General, Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar stated that PenCom is not a bank that warehouses funds or gives loans.
She stated this during an interactive session with the media against the backdrop of insinuations that PenCom had warehoused N15trillion pension funds.
She said the commission is not a custodian of retirees funds or a body in charge of disbursement, adding that pension fund assets are not managed by PenCom.
Speaking further on the delay in payment of retirement benefits to some Federal Government retirees and deceased employees, she blamed the late payment of Accrued Pension Rights.
She said: “Apart from the fact that PenCom is not a bank and does not warehouse or manage pension funds, the Federal Government did not take a loan of N10 trillion from the commission.
“Moreover, pension fund assets are not managed by PenCom. I have said repeatedly that when we say pension assets have grown to N15 trillion, that does not mean PenCom has N15 trillion locked somewhere in its office or bank accounts.
“Pension fund assets are managed by the licensed Pension Funds Administrators (PFAs) and held in custody by the licensed Pension Fund Custodians (PFCs). The PFAs are responsible for investing pension fund assets in allowable asset classes, including the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) debt instruments.
“The objectives are safety and fair returns. All these are in line with the provisions of the enabling law, the Pension Reform Act 2014, and the rules issued by the commission.
“It is obvious from the above that what is referred to as a ‘loan to FGN’ is just an investment in FGN securities by the PFAs, as is done by other institutional investors such as banks, insurance companies, asset managers, etc.
“Investments by the PFAs in the securities of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) are not loans as erroneously portrayed, but investments in securities, through bonds and treasury bills, as approved by the relevant government agencies, in this case the Debt Management Office (DMO) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“They are traded on authorized capital markets. That is, the Nigerian Exchange Limited and FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange.”
