By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said in the first quarter of 2019, investments in FGN Bonds and treasury bills contributed 70.81 percent to the total pension fund assets in Nigeria.
According to the NBS, while the FGN Bonds added 49.37 percent to the total pension fund assets, treasury bills had an input of 21.44 percent.
In addition, local money market securities contributed 9.68 percent, while the foreign money market securities added 0.25 percent.
In the report released by the stats office, it was said that the Pension Asset and RSA Membership Data in Q1 2019 reflected that 8.569 million workers were registered under the pension scheme compared with 8.410 million registered workers in Q4 2018, with the pension fund assets under management standing at N9.03 trillion in Q1 2019 as against N8.63 trillion in Q4 2018.
The data also revealed that participants within the age distribution 30-39 years have the highest percentage composition with 35.77 percent closely followed by participants within the age bracket of 40-49 years and 50-59 years with 28.12 percent and 18.02 percent respectively, while participants above 65 years have the least percentage composition with 2.78 percent.
A further analysis by Business Post of how the funds were invested showed that 6.54 percent of the total pension funds asset went to local shares, while 0.69 percent went to foreign stocks.
In addition, 0.28 percent of the funds were invested in mutual funds, while 1.04 percent was into Sukuk Bonds, with 0.09 percent in green bonds and 1.60 percent in state government securities.
