The chief executive officer of PenOp, Mr Oguche Agudah, disclosed this on the sidelines of a virtual training for members of the National Association of Insurance and Pension Correspondents in Lagos.He attributed the decline in the pension fund assets of N51.30 billion mainly to the depreciation in the prices of Fixed Income Securities in the trading portfolios of the Approved Existing Schemes .
Also, the Retirement Saving Accounts Funds II and IV and Closed Pension Fund Administrators . The PenOp CEO explained that the loss in percentage is minimal when subtracted from the N12.29 trillion total pension asset. He said, “If you examine the N51.30 billion depreciation from the N12.29 trillion pension funds in January 2021, you will notice it is not even up to 0.01 per cent, so the percentage loss here is minimal.
“However, we know there are concerns about the decline in the pension value of assets. The honest truth is that pension funds need to invest more in other assets classes outside of the government bonds and treasury bills which are the safest.’’ “So, safety is the first option adopted when investing in any asset. Currently, pension funds cannot invest in foreign bills because there are regulations which need to be approved by the government.’’