The Public sector’s contribution to pension funds exceeds that of the private sector by N370 billion as of the second quarter of 2023, according to data from the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp).
In a presentation document by the Chief Executive Officer at PenOp, Oguche Agudah, which was seen by Nairametrics, the public sector’s pension contribution hit N4.87 trillion by Q2 2023 while that of the private sector hit N4.5 trillion.
This means that the contribution by the public sector is N370 billion higher than that of the private sector.
Also, between Q3 2022 and Q2 2023, the public sector’s pension contribution rose by 14.05% from N4.27 trillion to N4.87 trillion while that of the private sector rose by 13.64% from N3.96 trillion to N4.5 trillion.
Between 2007 and July 2023, it added, the contributors under the CPS rose from 2,543,178 to 10,023,314.
Contributions make up 56% of total pension funds
The total funds under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) stood at 17.37tn as of Q2 2023.
Contributions made by the workers from both private and public sectors stood at N9.37tn in the period, making 54% of total pension funds.
The remaining 46% of the funds were from returns on investments, according to the PenOP data.
This means that Pension Fund Administrators recorded N7.98 trillion in profit from investing contributions made by workers into their Retirement Savings Accounts (RSA).
The pension operators disclosed that workers’ contributions were judiciously invested, and the returns were added to the workers’ pension savings, to reduce the effect of inflation on the funds.
Investments in infrastructure hit N349.97 billion or 2.025 of total pension assets by Q3 2023.
Also, N1.54 trillion representing 8.88% of total pension assets has been invested in the equity market while the value of investments in corporate debt is N1.86 trillion or 10.07% of total assets.
N24.8 billion recovered from defaulting employers
The presentation document shows that as of Q3 2023, the PFAs had recovered N24.8 billion from defaulting employers,
PenOp also revealed that in Q2 2023, N665.13 billion had been paid as a lump sum to annuity retirees; and N964.24 billion to programmed withdrawal retirees, making a total of N1.64 trillion to 442,000 retirees.
It added that N208.86 billion was paid to 475,235 workers who lost their jobs before getting to the official retirement age and were unable to get another job after four months.
Total death benefits paid to 91,214 beneficiaries amounted to N356.32 billion in Q2 2023.
The presentation document also showed that 649 contributors got approval to access N7.89 billion from their RSAs for residential mortgages.
