Pension Asset gains N843bn in 6 months as over 27,000 RSA holders change PFAs

Pension fund assets rose by N842.7 billion in the first half of 2022, hitting a record of N14.27 trillion from N13.42 trillion recorded at the beginning of the year. This is according to a National Pension Commission (PenCom). According to PenCom a total of 27,157 RSA contributors switched their pension managers between January and June 2022, bringing the total number of RSA transfers processed by the Commission to 78,549 since the opening of the transfer window. It said that since the launch of the PFA transfer window, which gives an opportunity for Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders to switch from one pension fund administrator to another, Q1 2022 recorded the highest quarterly movements, increasing by 20.1% quarter-on-quarter, an indication of how competitive the industry has become. 

Meanwhile, RSA registrations increased by 2.8% to stand at 9.79 million from 9.53 million recorded as of December 2021, which represents an increase of 266,830 new RSA registrations in six months. A detailed look at the data showed that total pension funds increased by 6.28 per cent from N13.42 trillion as of December 2021 to N14.27 trillion as of June 2022. Investments in corporate debt securities rose significantly by 26.11% to N1.19 trillion in the review period (year-to-date) while PFAs increased their investments in real estate by 50.66% to N236.2 billion as of June 2022 from N156.8 billion recorded as of the beginning of the year.  The report said that investments in private equity funds dipped slightly by 0.24 per cent to stand at N38.87 billion from N38.96 billion. Also PFA allocations to FGN securities stood at N9.01 trillion, a 2.67 per cent increase from N8.77 trillion in December 2021and investments in FGN securities accounted for about 63% of the total pension fund. 

The RSA fund II accounted for most of the fund contribution with N6.24 trillion, representing 43.7% of the total pension funds, followed by RSA Fund III with N3.86 trillion, which represents 27% of the total assets and existing schemes accounted for 10.1 per cent of the total funds, increased by N85.78 billion to stand at N1.44 trillion, while the CPFAs accounted for 10.7% of the total funds, standing at N1.52 trillion as of the review period. Pension Fund Administrators increased their exposure in the Nigerian stock market in the first half of the year, with an additional N53.85 billion investment in the local bourse, bringing the total investments to N969.16 billion.