Nigeria’s Total Pension Asset Rose By N123.47 Billion in July 2021

Nigeria’s total pension asset value rose by N123.47 billion in July 2021 to close at N12.78 trillion compared to N12.66 trillion recorded in the previous month. This is contained in the pension funds industry report for the review month as released by the National Pension Commission.

According to the report, the net asset value of Nigeria’s pensions fund recorded a 0.98% increase in the month of July 2021, while 22,349 RSA registrations were recorded in the same month increasing total contributors to 9.4 million.

A cursory look at the data, reveals pension asset value has gained N474.49 billion between January and July of the year. In the same vein, 189,765 more contributors have been registered into the scheme, year-to-date.

Pension Fund managers in Nigeria have been recording stellar performances in their various portfolios year-to-date, owing to their systematic investments, so as to edge other competitors in the industry. Recall, that the competition in the industry has grown significantly since contributors can now easily transfer from one administrator to another.

A recent analysis by shows 70% of the 22 PFAs recorded positive growth across their four retirement savings account funds (RSA I – IV), with Stanbic IBTC, Veritas Glanvills and APT Pension leading the list of best-performing PFAs between January and July 2021.

• As of 31st July 2021, most of the funds were invested in FGN Securities, with N8.1 trillion accounting for 64.2% of the total funds. However, a month-on-month comparison shows that investment in FGN securities declined by 3.2% in the review month.

• Local money market instruments, accounted for 16.5% of the total pension fund asset, with N2.1 trillion. It recorded a significant 21.4% increase compared to N1.74 trillion recorded in the previous month.

• On the other hand, investment in mutual funds stood at N116.26 billion, which is about 0.9% of the entire pension fund. Despite its little contribution, it declined marginally in the review month by 0.1% compared to N116.3 billion as of June 2021.

• In terms of fund type, RSA fund II accounted for most of the funds with N5.59 trillion, representing 43.8% of the industry funds, followed by RSA III with N3.35 trillion, which is 26.23% of the total.

• The RSA V fund accounted for the lowest with N117.28 million.