By Ngozi Onyeakusi — National Pension Commission (PenCom) has disclosed that the total assets under the Contributory Pension Scheme has grown to N9.32tn as of the end of June 2019.

The funds, which had continued to record a steady rise, hit N8.33tn as of the end of August 2018.

According to the commission, 69.5 per cent of the assets were invested in the FGN securities.

The Pension Reform Act, which introduced the CPS, was inaugurated in 2004 and it provides a contributory arrangement in which the employer and employee contribute to the workers’ RSAs.

However, the CPS was only been made available to the formal sector since inception until the Federal Government officially extended it to the informal sector in March 2019.

The acting Director General, PenCom, Mrs Aisha Dahir-Umar, said the micro pension plan targeted the majority of Nigeria’s working population who, incidentally, operated in the informal sector.

The President, Pension Fund Operators, Mrs Aderonke Adedeji, said it was important for the informal sector workers to key into the micro pension scheme.

She noted that the industry had invested a lot to ensure that all workers, including those in the informal sector, had pensions to fall back on in their old age.

PenOp noted that it was cogent for the contributors to update their information with their PFAs, to notify the operators of any change that could have occurred in their details since the time they joined the scheme.

Some of the irregularities the operator observed were that some contributors had irregular names, change of address and multiple PFAs.

The association said it was important for the contributors to avail the PFAs of their National Identification Number, now a mandatory requirement to access pension benefits.

It urged contributors to participate in data recapturing in the sector. Additional materials from Punch