The Nation Newspaper

Category: Pension

  • Inspenonline unveils nominees for 2014 award

    The Management of Inspenonline, an insurance and  pension online medium, has released the names of nominees for the 2014 Nigerian Insurance and Pension (Inspen) Award.

    A statement by its Editor, Chuks Udo Okonta, said the awards presentation is billed to hold by February 2015 in Lagos.

    He said the yearly award, which is in eight categories, will be contested by underwriting firm, Pension Fund Administrators, broking firms and individuals, who distinguished themselves in 2014.

    He noted that nominees for the Insurance Man of the year category are, the Managing Director Mansard Insurance Plc, Mrs Yetunde Ilori; Managing Director Leadway Assurance Limited, Mr Oye Hassan-Odukale; Group Managing Director, Custodian and Allied Plc, Mr Wole Oshin; Managing Director AIICO Plc, Edwin Igbiti and former President Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) Fatai Lawal.

    Those for Insurance Company of the Year are, Mansard Insurance Plc; AIICO Plc; Leadway Assurance Limited; Custodian and Allied Plc; Royal Exchange Plc and Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc while those nominated for the Excellence Award are, Mr Oladipo Bailey; Professor Joe Irukwu and Mr Osaka Ogala.

    He said institutions nominated for Best Professional Group Award are, Nigerian Insurers Association; Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers; Association of Registered Insurance Agents of Nigeria and Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria.

    Companies for Corporate Brand Award according to him are Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc, Leadway Assurance Ltd and Mansard Insurance Plc.

  • Greece spends more on pensions than UK

    State pensions are one of the biggest expenses for the British government. However, new figures from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) showed that the United Kingdom (UK) spends less on pensions than most other developed countries.

    In 2011 Britain spent less than 12pc of its total government budget on state pensions, putting it below the 18pc average across OECD countries.

    The countries spending the highest proportion of their public money on pensions are Italy at 31.9pc, Greece at 28pc and Portugal at 26.4pc.

    This is down to these nations’ ageing populations and the economic meltdown they have suffered since the financial crisis, which has caused other state spending to shrink.

    Iceland spent the lowest proportion of its government funds on pensions in 2011, at 4.5pc.

    Tim Reay of accountancy firm PwC said countries in northern Europe tended to have smaller, “welfare-style” state pensions that benefited the poorest most. Across Southern Europe, however, state pensions were more generous and provided a percentage of people’s salary, much like a final salary private pension.

    According to the OECD, pension systems “differ substantially” across its member countries, but face the same main difficulty: remaining financially sustainable while delivering adequate pension income.

    In a report it said: “The economic crisis in 2008 developed into a fiscal crisis in many countries. These difficulties have led to substantial changes and reform of pensions.

    “The current need to reduce government debt to more sustainable levels and the high level of public pension expenditure in many OECD countries imply that additional pension reforms are likely to figure prominently on the policy agenda.”

    As a result of these challenges, most of the OECD countries have been very active in reforming their pension system over the past two-and-a-half years, it said.

     

    •Culled from Telegraph

  • Lagos retirees get N1.5b today

    To ensure that workers in Lagos State have a better and fulfilling life after retirement, its government will today pay another set of 234 retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), a sum of N1.547 billion, Director-General, Lagos State Pension Commission, Rotimi Adekunle Hussain, has said.

    According to him, the payment is to be made for their past service prior to the commencement of the CPS in 2007 in the state.

    Hussain, who made this known to reporters, said the retirees would be receiving their retirement benefits during the 15th Retirement Bond Certificates presentation, which held yesterday at the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) auditorium in Lagos.

    He added that today’s ceremony is coming up in a space of one month after the 14th presentation that held in November.

    The LASPEC boss recalled that as at the 14th Bond Certificates presentation held in November this year, a total of 5,530 retirees had been paid a total sum of N28.93 billion.

    He stressed that Governor Babatunde Fashola’s administration, has since the adoption of the CPS in 2007, taken it as a duty and utmost importance to always organise the ceremony to present the retirees with their retirement benefits.

    He said the retirees are presently enjoying their retirement benefits under the scheme without any rancor or stress, noting that this is in a clear affirmation of the state’s commitment to the welfare of its workforce.

  • Pension fund drops by N7.79b in October

    Pension fund drops by N7.79b in October

    Investigations by The Nation has revealed a dip of N7.79 billion in the Pension Fund. The drop, which occurred in the October 2014  valuation of  pension fund assets, represents a 0.17 per cent decline when compared to the figure in the preceeding  month of September 2014.

    Checks on the fund showed that from the N4,582,735.14trillion recorded by the pension industry in September, it fell to N4,574,939.36 trillion in October.

    Before now, the sector had witnessed steady growth up to the tune of N4, 501, 753.39 trillion funds recorded in August and N4, 454, 953.57 trillion recorded in July.

    When The Nation contacted PenCom Head of Investment Elumeme Ohioma, the decrease in the pension fund is a normal occurrence and not a strange phenomenon.

    PenCom Head of Investment, Ehimeme Ohioma said the decrease in the pension fund is a normal occurrence and not a strange phenomenon.

    He explained that the decline resulted from recent fluctuations and depreciation in the market prices of quoted ordinary shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), which inevitably affected pension fund investments in ordinary shares.

    Moreover, he said, the reduced market prices present good investment opportunities for pension fund investments in the ordinary shares of blue-chip and sector leaders.

    He said this is because current market prices are below the intrinsic values of such companies’ stocks.

    Meanwhile, a report titled “summary of Pension Fund Assets as at October 31,2014 showed that total investment made by the Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) in Federal Government Securities in October totalled N2.827 trillion, accounting for 61.81 per cent of the total pension assets under management.

    This was broken down into FGN Bonds of N2.28 trillion accounting for 49.96 per cent and Treasury Bills of N541.98 billion accounting for 11.85 per cent.

    A further analysis of the report showed that pension fund investments in local money market instruments in October was N57.49 billion, bringing the total pension fund invested so far to N561.64 billion out of the total N4.57 trillion fund recorded in the pension industry.

    However, only N992 million has been invested in the Foreign Money Market securities by the PFA with no investment in September and October.

    Also, funds invested in Domestic Ordinary Shares is N592.54 billion, accounting for 12.95 per cent, Foreign Ordinary Shares N54.977.75, State Govt. Securities N179.53 billion, accounting for 3.92 per cent, Corporate Debt Securities N91.61 billion accounting for two per cent, Supra-National Bonds N12.14 billion accounting for 0.27 per cent, Open/Close-End Funds N20.3 billion.

    In the Real Estate and Properties sector, N204.32 billion accounting for 4.47 per cent was invested, Private Equity Fund N9.45 billion accounting for 0.21 per cent while Cash & Other Assets N19.68 billion accounting for 0.43 per cent.

    In another report by the regulator titled: ”2014 Second Quarter Report”, detailing developments in the Money Market, the stance of monetary policy remained restrictive.

    In the second quarter, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) maintained the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 12.00 per cent and in pursuit of restrictive monetary policy, the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) on both public and private sector deposits were maintained at 75.0 and 15.0 percent, respectively in the quarter.

    It read: “The Liquidity Ratio and net open position were similarly maintained at 30.00 and 1.00 percent respectively as in the first quarter. Similarly, open market operations were conducted in ways that further contained inflationary pressure on the economy.

    “Interest rate developments in the money market, however, showed mixed results especially on banks’ deposits and lending rates. Apart from the three months deposit rates that declined from 9.41 in the first quarter to 9.37 in the second quarter, every other rate on deposits of different maturity increased from a range of 3.30–9.92 per cent in the first quarter to a range of 3.42–10.06 per cent. The average term deposit rate increased marginally from 8.60 per cent to 8.65 per cent. Similarly, the maximum lending rate increased marginally from 25.72 per cent to 25.82 per cent while the prime lending rate actually fell from 17.19 per cent to close at 16.86 per cent.

    “The inter-bank segment of the money market recorded some increases in the rates of some financial instruments. For example, the weighted average inter-bank call rate, which stood at 10.33 per cent at the end of the first quarter increased by 0.26 per cent to close at 10.59 per cent, reflecting the liquidity condition in the banking system.

    “However, the Nigeria Interbank Offer Rate (NIBOR) for the seven-day and 30-day tenors decreased from 11.88 and 12.22 per cent to 10.91 and 12.41 per cent respectively.”

    The report further stated that the primary market segment of the money market was quite active during the quarter under review as the Nigerian Treasury Bills of 91-day, 182-day and 364-day tenors, amounting to over N1 trillion, N3.56 trillion and over N1 trillion were offered, subscribed to and allotted respectively.

    This shows that the level of oversubscription to the NTBs was 238.86 per cent in the quarter, which indicates continuous investors’ confidence in FGN securities.

    The bid rates for the 91-day tenor ranged from 8.50 to 15.00 per cent, while the stop rates were from 9.95–11.71 per cent. The bid rates for the 182-day tenor ranged between 9.20 and 13.69 per  cent, while the stop rates ranged between 10.02–12.84 percent. For the 364-day tenor, the bid rates ranged between 9.00 and 15.00 percent, while the stop rates ranged from 10.12 –13.04 percent.

  • Pension fund drops by N7.79 b in October

    Pension fund drops by N7.79 b in October

    Investigations by The Nation has revealed a dip of N7.79 billion in the Pension Fund. The drop, which occurred in the October 2014  valuation of  pension fund assets, represents a 0.17 per cent decline when compared to the figure in the preceeding  month of September 2014.

    Checks on the fund showed that from the N4,582,735.14trillion recorded by the pension industry in September, it fell to N4,574,939.36 trillion in October.

    Before now, the sector had witnessed steady growth up to the tune of N4, 501, 753.39 trillion funds recorded in August and N4, 454, 953.57 trillion recorded in July.

    When The Nation contacted PenCom Head of Investment Elumeme Ohioma, the decrease in the pension fund is a normal occurrence and not a strange phenomenon.

    PenCom Head of Investment, Ehimeme Ohioma said the decrease in the pension fund is a normal occurrence and not a strange phenomenon.

    He explained that the decline resulted from recent fluctuations and depreciation in the market prices of quoted ordinary shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), which inevitably affected pension fund investments in ordinary shares.

    Moreover, he said, the reduced market prices present good investment opportunities for pension fund investments in the ordinary shares of blue-chip and sector leaders.

    He said this is because current market prices are below the intrinsic values of such companies’ stocks.

    Meanwhile, a report titled “summary of Pension Fund Assets as at October 31,2014 showed that total investment made by the Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) in Federal Government Securities in October totalled N2.827 trillion, accounting for 61.81 per cent of the total pension assets under management.

    This was broken down into FGN Bonds of N2.28 trillion accounting for 49.96 per cent and Treasury Bills of N541.98 billion accounting for 11.85 per cent.

    A further analysis of the report showed that pension fund investments in local money market instruments in October was N57.49 billion, bringing the total pension fund invested so far to N561.64 billion out of the total N4.57 trillion fund recorded in the pension industry.

    However, only N992 million has been invested in the Foreign Money Market securities by the PFA with no investment in September and October.

    Also, funds invested in Domestic Ordinary Shares is N592.54 billion, accounting for 12.95 per cent, Foreign Ordinary Shares N54.977.75, State Govt. Securities N179.53 billion, accounting for 3.92 per cent, Corporate Debt Securities N91.61 billion accounting for two per cent, Supra-National Bonds N12.14 billion accounting for 0.27 per cent, Open/Close-End Funds N20.3 billion.

    In the Real Estate and Properties sector, N204.32 billion accounting for 4.47 per cent was invested, Private Equity Fund N9.45 billion accounting for 0.21 per cent while Cash & Other Assets N19.68 billion accounting for 0.43 per cent.

    In another report by the regulator titled: ”2014 Second Quarter Report”, detailing developments in the Money Market, the stance of monetary policy remained restrictive.

    In the second quarter, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) maintained the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 12.00 per cent and in pursuit of restrictive monetary policy, the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) on both public and private sector deposits were maintained at 75.0 and 15.0 percent, respectively in the quarter.

    It read: “The Liquidity Ratio and net open position were similarly maintained at 30.00 and 1.00 percent respectively as in the first quarter. Similarly, open market operations were conducted in ways that further contained inflationary pressure on the economy.

    “Interest rate developments in the money market, however, showed mixed results especially on banks’ deposits and lending rates. Apart from the three months deposit rates that declined from 9.41 in the first quarter to 9.37 in the second quarter, every other rate on deposits of different maturity increased from a range of 3.30–9.92 per cent in the first quarter to a range of 3.42–10.06 per cent. The average term deposit rate increased marginally from 8.60 per cent to 8.65 per cent. Similarly, the maximum lending rate increased marginally from 25.72 per cent to 25.82 per cent while the prime lending rate actually fell from 17.19 per cent to close at 16.86 per cent.

    “The inter-bank segment of the money market recorded some increases in the rates of some financial instruments. For example, the weighted average inter-bank call rate, which stood at 10.33 per cent at the end of the first quarter increased by 0.26 per cent to close at 10.59 per cent, reflecting the liquidity condition in the banking system.

    “However, the Nigeria Interbank Offer Rate (NIBOR) for the seven-day and 30-day tenors decreased from 11.88 and 12.22 per cent to 10.91 and 12.41 per cent respectively.”

    The report further stated that the primary market segment of the money market was quite active during the quarter under review as the Nigerian Treasury Bills of 91-day, 182-day and 364-day tenors, amounting to over N1 trillion, N3.56 trillion and over N1 trillion were offered, subscribed to and allotted respectively.

    This shows that the level of oversubscription to the NTBs was 238.86 per cent in the quarter, which indicates continuous investors’ confidence in FGN securities.

    The bid rates for the 91-day tenor ranged from 8.50 to 15.00 per cent, while the stop rates were from 9.95–11.71 per cent. The bid rates for the 182-day tenor ranged between 9.20 and 13.69 per  cent, while the stop rates ranged between 10.02–12.84 percent. For the 364-day tenor, the bid rates ranged between 9.00 and 15.00 percent, while the stop rates ranged from 10.12 –13.04 percent.

  • Greece spends more on pensions than UK

    State pensions are one of the biggest expenses for the British government. However, new figures from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) showed that the United Kingdom (UK) spends less on pensions than most other developed countries.

    In 2011 Britain spent less than 12pc of its total government budget on state pensions, putting it below the 18pc average across OECD countries.

    The countries spending the highest proportion of their public money on pensions are Italy at 31.9pc, Greece at 28pc and Portugal at 26.4pc.

    This is down to these nations’ ageing populations and the economic meltdown they have suffered since the financial crisis, which has caused other state spending to shrink.

    Iceland spent the lowest proportion of its government funds on pensions in 2011, at 4.5pc.

    Tim Reay of accountancy firm PwC said countries in northern Europe tended to have smaller, “welfare-style” state pensions that benefited the poorest most. Across Southern Europe, however, state pensions were more generous and provided a percentage of people’s salary, much like a final salary private pension.

    According to the OECD, pension systems “differ substantially” across its member countries, but face the same main difficulty: remaining financially sustainable while delivering adequate pension income.

    In a report it said: “The economic crisis in 2008 developed into a fiscal crisis in many countries. These difficulties have led to substantial changes and reform of pensions.

    “The current need to reduce government debt to more sustainable levels and the high level of public pension expenditure in many OECD countries imply that additional pension reforms are likely to figure prominently on the policy agenda.”

    As a result of these challenges, most of the OECD countries have been very active in reforming their pension system over the past two-and-a-half years, it said.

     

    •Culled from Telegraph

  • Lagos retirees get N1.5b today

    To ensure that workers in Lagos State have a better and fulfilling life after retirement, its government will today pay another set of 234 retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), a sum of N1.547 billion, Director-General, Lagos State Pension Commission, Rotimi Adekunle Hussain, has said.

    According to him, the payment is to be made for their past service prior to the commencement of the CPS in 2007 in the state.

    Hussain, who made this known to reporters, said the retirees would be receiving their retirement benefits during the 15th Retirement Bond Certificates presentation, which held yesterday at the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) auditorium in Lagos.

    He added that today’s ceremony is coming up in a space of one month after the 14th presentation that held in November.

    The LASPEC boss recalled that as at the 14th Bond Certificates presentation held in November this year, a total of 5,530 retirees had been paid a total sum of N28.93 billion.

    He stressed that Governor Babatunde Fashola’s administration, has since the adoption of the CPS in 2007, taken it as a duty and utmost importance to always organise the ceremony to present the retirees with their retirement benefits.

    He said the retirees are presently enjoying their retirement benefits under the scheme without any rancor or stress, noting that this is in a clear affirmation of the state’s commitment to the welfare of its workforce.

  • Inspenonline unveils nominees for 2014 award

    The Management of Inspenonline, an insurance and pension online medium, has released the names of nominees for the 2014 Nigerian Insurance and Pension (Inspen) Award.

    A statement by its Editor, Chuks Udo Okonta, said the awards presentation is billed to hold by February 2015 in Lagos.

    He said the yearly award, which is in eight categories, will be contested by underwriting firm, Pension Fund Administrators, broking firms and individuals, who distinguished themselves in 2014.

    He noted that nominees for the Insurance Man of the year category are, the Managing Director Mansard Insurance Plc, Mrs Yetunde Ilori; Managing Director Leadway Assurance Limited, Mr Oye Hassan-Odukale; Group Managing Director, Custodian and Allied Plc, Mr Wole Oshin; Managing Director AIICO Plc, Edwin Igbiti and former President Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) Fatai Lawal.

    Those for Insurance Company of the Year are, Mansard Insurance Plc; AIICO Plc; Leadway Assurance Limited; Custodian and Allied Plc; Royal Exchange Plc and Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc while those nominated for the Excellence Award are, Mr Oladipo Bailey; Professor Joe Irukwu and Mr Osaka Ogala.

    He said institutions nominated for Best Professional Group Award are, Nigerian Insurers Association; Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers; Association of Registered Insurance Agents of Nigeria and Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria.

    Companies for Corporate Brand Award according to him are Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc, Leadway Assurance Ltd and Mansard Insurance Plc.

  • Errant employers pays N628.3m fine to PenCom

    Errant employers pays N628.3m fine to PenCom

    Errant employers have been made to pay a fine of N628.36 million to the National Pension Commission (PenCom) as at end of second quarter, of this year for failing to remit their employees’ pension contribution. They are required by the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2004, repealed by the PRA of 2014, to remit their employers’ contributions.

    Also, Recovery Agents (RAs) appointed by the Commission were able to recover N3.47 billion from defaulting employers.

    This was made known by PenCom in its 2014 second quarterly reports of its regulatory and supervisory activities in the pension industry.

    The Commission disclosed that the regulation and supervision of the industry focused on risk-based examination of licensed pension operators with a view to promote transparency, provide early warning signals and encourage pension operators to regularly self-evaluate their positions.

    The report showed that in another development, letters of warning were issued to 316 employers that failed to remit outstanding pension contributions and penalties that were established by the RAs.

    Meanwhile, 27 out of the 316 employers have been referred to the Legal Department of the Commission for prosecution, bringing the number of employers scheduled for prosecution to 101.

    “During the quarter, the Commission re-appointed 123 RAs in order to conclude the recovery of outstanding pension contributions and penalty from employers.

    “As a consequence of the demand notices issued to defaulting employers whose liabilities had been determined by the RAs, some employers had remitted their outstanding pension contributions and penalties. Subsequently, the sum of N367.436 million, representing principal contributions and penalties, were recovered by the RAs. This brought the total recoveries made so far by the RAs to N4.099 billion comprising of principal contributions of N3.47 billion and penalties of N628.36 million,” the report said.

    Besides, the Commission said it conducted routine examinations on 11 pension fund operators.

    The examination, which was risk-based according to the Commission, covered 11 broad areas of the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) operations, which included company; board and management operations; information and communication technology; pension administration; benefits administration and payment arrangements; and fund management.

    Other areas, according to the report, included risk management and compliance, service delivery and internal control systems. The   routine examination draft report had since been communicated to the Boards of some of the operators.

    “The examination report had since been discussed with concerned PFA’s management and commitments were obtained for remedial actions to be carried out by the operators examined.

    “A review of the compliance reports forwarded by PFAs to the Commission during the quarter revealed some issues of non-compliance, which included: non-compliance with investment limits by some PFAs; delay in the payment of retirement benefits; receipt of pension contributions without appropriate schedules; unresolved customer complaints; failure to fill certain vacant management positions; and non-implementation of disaster recovery plans.

    “Subsequently, the Commission forwarded letters to concerned operators over the identified issues as well as collaborated with various stakeholders to enhance compliance,” the report stated.

    Concerning compliance by the private sector with the Pension Act in the quarter under review, the report stated that the Commission received 952 applications for the issuance of compliance certificates to employers, out of which 683 were issued and 269 applications turned down due to various inadequacies inherent in their applications.

    The inadequacies, according to the report, included non-remittance of pension contributions and non-provision of Group Life Insurance Policy for their employees.

    Apart from publishing the names of the 683 employers issued certificates of compliance, the employers remitted the sum of N10.18 billion into 35,057 employees’ Retirement Saving Accounts during the quarter under review.

  • Greece spends more on pensions than UK

    State pensions are one of the biggest expenses for the British government. However, new figures from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) have shown that the UK spends less on pensions than most other developed countries.

    In 2011 Britain spent less than 12pc of its total government budget on state pensions, putting it below the 18pc average across OECD countries.

    The countries spending the highest proportion of their public money on pensions are Italy with 31.9pc, Greece (28pc) and Portugal (26.4pc). This is due to their ageing populations and the economic meltdown they have suffered since the financial crisis, which has caused other state spending to shrink.

    Iceland spent the lowest proportion of its funds on pensions in 2011, at 4.5pc.

    Tim Reay of an accountancy firm, PwC, said countries in northern Europe tended to have smaller, “welfare-style” state pensions that benefited the poorest most. Across southern Europe, however, state pensions were more generous and provided a percentage of people’s salary, much like a final salary private pension.

    According to the OECD, pension systems “differ substantially” across  its member countries, but face the same main difficulty: remaining financially sustainable while delivering adequate pension income.

    In a report it said: “The economic crisis in 2008 developed into a fiscal crisis in many countries. These difficulties have led to substantial changes and reform of pensions.