The Acting Director-General of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), Omolola Oloworaran, said the total pension fund assets increased to N20.79tn in July.
The fund assets generated under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) were disclosed at the Quarterly Consultative Forum for states and the Federal Capital Territory by Oloworaran on Wednesday in Lagos State.
PenCom said states remitted N236.7bn to the Pension Fund Custodians (PFCs) as contributions within the first six months of 2024.
“Pension fund assets under the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS, continue to grow, with total Assets under management soaring to N20.79tn as of July 2024,” she said.
“We are pleased to note the steady remittance of contributions by States, with over N236.7bn remitted by States between January 2020 and the second quarter of 2024.
“It will interest state governments to note that one of the significant benefits of adopting the CPS is access to accumulated pension funds for infrastructural development through the issuance of state bonds.
“Indeed, five states, including Lagos, Niger, Osun, Ekiti and Delta, have successfully issued state bonds that were subscribed by pension funds, for example, Lekki-Ikoyi Bridge in Lagos.”
Speaking at the event, Oloworaran said based on current records, only 25 states including the FCT had enacted pension laws on the CPS, while six are preparing to pass the law.
“Six other States have adopted the Contributory Defined Benefits Scheme, a hybrid of the CPS. However, only eight States are fully implementing the CPS, out of the 25 States that have enacted pension laws.
“Also five states, including Lagos, Niger, Osun, Ekiti, and Delta, had issued state bonds financed by pension funds, with Lagos’ Lekki-Ikoyi Bridge partially funded through that mechanism” PenCom boss disclosed.
Oloworaran said the commission committed to ensuring that all retirees from public and private sectors received their retirement benefits without delay would engage the states in a sustained manner and work towards expanding the coverage of the CPS at the subnational level.
“We will also intensify efforts with relevant state government agencies to resolve the backlog in accrued rights payments to CPS retirees,” the PenCom boss said.
“In addition, we will ensure that pensioners under the CPS and other pension arrangements benefit from pension increments as provided for in the Nigeria constitution.”
Oloworaran also said from December 2025, PenCom would introduce a recognition and reward system to encourage and reward pension reforms by states.
She urged the heads of pension bureaus, boards and commissions steering the implementation of the CPS heads of service and senior government officials of some states that had commenced implementation of the scheme participants to make constructive contributions to the deliberations to assist state governments’ roles in pension reform and implementation processes.