Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) invested N1.03 trillion in Federal Government bonds and treasury bills in 2019.
A report on pension fund assets as at December 2019 released by the National Pension Commission (PenCom) showed that PFAs investments in Federal Government’s bonds and treasury bills rose from N6.31 trillion recorded as at the end of December 2018 to N7.34 trillion by the end of December, 2019.
The report revealed that the aggregate value of pension assets in Nigeria skyrocketed by N1.81 trillion in 2019, rising from N8.64 trillion recorded as at 2018 to hit N10.45 trillion in 2019.
Analysis of the pension funds invested in several securities show that Federal Government securities remain the most attractive to PFAs, partly due to security concerns and the volatility of other investible instruments.
A breakdown of pension fund invested in Federal Government’s securities in 2019 revealed that N5.35 trillion was invested in Federal Government bonds, N1.88 trillion in treasury bills, N11.73 billion in agency bonds, N83.52 billion in Sukuk bonds and N15.46 billion in green bonds.
The latest PenCom’s report showed that pension fund investment in State Government securities slumped by N23.64 billion in 2019, dropping from N138.07 billion recorded as at 2018 to N115.07 billion as at end of 2019.
PenCom directed PFAs not to invest in securities floated by state governments yet to fully comply with the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
Pension fund investments in corporate debt securities went north by N98.17 billion, rising from N468.68 billion as at end of 2018 to hit N566.85 billion by the end of 2019.
PFAs also increased investments in local money market securities and mutual funds during the period under review.
In 2019, pension fund investment in local money market securities jumped by N460 billion from N709.14 billion as at end of 2018 to N1.17 trillion.
The report showed that investments in local money securities included securities issued by banks and commercial papers.
Investment in mutual funds grew by N3.11 billion in 2019 from the N24.01 billion as at 2018 to N27.11 billion by the end of 2019.
The mutual funds included open/close-end funds, real estate Properties, private equity fund, infrastructure fund and other assets
