Bisi Bamishe
Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp) has sealed partnership with InfraCredit in its bid to unlock sustainable investment of pensions assets.
Chief Executive Officer of PenOp, Mr Agada Oguche who made this known in Lagos recently.
According to him, PenOp’s partnership with InfraCredit was aimed at accelerating domestic credit to the private sector for infrastructure Development and deepening the domestic debt Capital Markets.
As the largest source of long-term investment capital, institutional investors like PensionFunds, he said, has important role to play as an effective investment tool to deliver the three pillars of the #SDGs, which are economic, environmental and social sustainability.
He noted that though Nigeria’s economy is marred by challenges such as poverty, poor infrastructure, unemployment among others, but with the geometric growth in the pension assets to over N12trillion, the sector is poised to bring succour to Nigerians through its partnership with InfraCredit .
“We strongly believe that the success of this collaboration will advance economic development, sustainability, job creation, and higher living standards Nigeria”, he said
According to the world poverty index, 85 million Nigerians which formed 45 per cent of Africa’s largest populous nation are poor.
With the emergence of COVID-19, concerns are growing that additional five million people will go below poverty line in the next one year. Because of this fact, the savings loan for poverty in Nigeria is low.
Owing to the low savings rate, Nigeria depends on weak fiscal revenue for infrastructural development, a fact that explains the rising infrastructure deficit in the country.
In addition, the Nigeria dependency ratio is especially among the elderly who depend on their children and relatives for necessities such as food and healthcare in old age.
These are some underly issues depleting the vision cycle of poverty in Nigeria.
Against this backdrop, the Nigerian pension industry is slowly but truly changing the narrative.
Though the penetration is primarily in the formal sector, the pension assets has geometrically grown to over N12 trillion through combination of sound regulation and true professionalism on the part of the pension operators.
