By Nnamdi Duru, 06.13.2010 

Pension assets in the country have grown to N1.7 trillion in less than six years, after contributing penson was established, National Pension Commission (PenCom), has said.

The Commission  also said that 157,000 employers in the private sector are currently contributing to  the pension of their employees in line with the provisions of the Pension Reform Act, 2004.Director-General of PenCom, Mr. Muhammad Kabir Ahmad made these disclosures during the  conference for directors of pension organisations by the commission in Lagos.

The pension law establishes a contributory pension scheme for all employees in the public service of the federation, Federal Capital Territory and the private sector where there are a minimum of five employees. All the employees to whom the scheme applies are required to open a Retirement Savings Account (RSA) with a Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) of their choice. While the employer is mandated to contribute a minimum of 7.5 percent to the scheme, the employee is also required to contribute a minimum of 7.5 percent to the scheme.

Giving an update on the scheme, Ahmad confirmed that pension assets in the country have  grown to N1.7 trillion with over 4 million workers contributing into the scheme.  He added that not less than 157,000 employers in the private sector are also contributing into the pool.He also noted that in spite of the fact that the state governments are not mandated to adopt the contributory pension scheme, 30 of them have adopted the scheme while few of these states have already started remitting their pension contributions.

Ahmad also reassured stakeholders and the working people in Nigeria on the safety of the pension assets,  saying it is significantly insulated from the effects of ongoing financial crisis in Greece and other European countries.According to him, pension assets are not invested outside the country in line with the law and as such, current crisis in Greece and other parts of the globe will not affect the value of such investments.

(Source:ThisDay)