… As Assets Hit N1.7trn
By Mike Abba
Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited says it has paid over N279 billion to retirees whose retirement accounts are linked to its Pension Management since the company’s inception in 2006.
In the company’s half-year report recently released to the public, the Pension Managers said that over 5,000 new retirees also received their benefits from the Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) between January and June this year.
By this, the company said the number of individual retirement savings account (RSA) holders nationwide had increased with to over 1,500,000.
Specifically, a total of N16.6 billion was paid to retirees from January to June this year.
The company said the figures were reeled out as the it examined its 2017 half year performance “with a view to retooling for higher performance in the years ahead”.
According to the Pension Managers, the move is in the PFA’s continued effort to step up its national awareness and engagement campaigns across the country, through its 2017 employers’ forum. The 2017 employers’ forum held in six selected major cities of Port Harcourt, Enugu, Benin, Lagos, Abuja and Ibadan.
In a chat, Chief Executive Officer of Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited, Mr. Eric Fajemisin, stated that the company has more than N1.7 trillion in assets under management, a feat that reinforces a strong evidence of its proficiency at ensuring safety and return of value on investment to RSA holders through higher standards of service delivery.
The performance also demonstrates the potential of the pension industry to pool the requisite funding to support Nigeria’s economic development
He said further that the result demonstrates the potential of the pension industry to pool the requisite funding to support Nigeria’s economic development.
“We believe that every able-bodied Nigerian who earns a living is entitled to a pension at the point in time when that person can no longer work and would not want to be a liability to the nation or to the kith and kin. This is what makes participation in the nascent pension scheme quite imperative,” he said.
He stressed the importance of raising the awareness about retirement planning, especially among operators in the informal sector populated by estimated 38 million workers and accounts for about 60 per cent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as well as offers employment to over 90 percent of the private sector workforce.
Fajemisin said deepening awareness about the pension scheme requires the collaboration of all stakeholders noting that numerous benefits it offers the beneficiaries, such as peace of mind in retirement.
According to him, adopting the existing ecosystem they operate and using mobile devices to access important information will add more transparency and trust to the scheme.
