• How pension fund operators invested N940b assets in banks, securitiesIt was another period of pullback at the end of last week’s trading on the equities sector of the Nigerian Stock Exchange , which resulted in the depreciation of the bourse’s All-Share Index and market capitalisation by 1.38 per cent, to close the week at 27,146.57 points and N13.207 trillion respectively.
Foreign investors, who remain the dominant force in a market where domestic participation has remained abysmally low, are bound to take such a statement seriously. Codros Capital Research also said: “Over the coming weeks, we expect the market to remain pressured, given global risk-off sentiments and weak domestic participation.
The conglomerates industry followed with 93.204 million shares worth N239.250 million in 883 deals, while the construction/real estate industry trailed with a turnover of 65.808 million shares worth N66.730 million in 100 deals. The commission noted that the operators also invested N105.05 billion in commercial papers, N1.82 billion in foreign money market securities, and N23.67 billion in mutual funds.
PenCom’s Acting Director-General Aisha Dahir-Umar said the Contributory Pension Scheme has been very impactful in Nigeria since the commencement of its implementation in 2004. She added that the formation of long-term domestic capital, represented by the over N9.33 trillion pension assets as at June 2019, and belonging to nine million formal sector participants, is slowly, but surely changing Nigeria’s financial landscape.
To ensure that every Nigerian has access to financial services, they said the Federal Government came up with micro insurance and micro pension products to penetrate the grassroots and get to those not currently registered in the CPS or covered by any form of insurance.