The National Pension Commission of Nigeria (PENCOM),says the N14.5trillion available pension fund is not idle, as the fund has been properly invested.
It explained how the fund was invested while meeting with the Senate Committee on Finance currently interfacing with government agencies on proposals for the 2023- 2025 Medium Term Expenditure Frame Work (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).
The agency added that N9 .5trillion out of the N14.5 trillion is invested in federal government security, N1.23trillion in equity shares, while 35% of the fund is invested in money market.
The Executive Chairman of PENCOM, Aisha Dahiru Umar, who stated these in her submission to the Senate Committee on Finance, assured of payment of pensioners a week after retirement.
According to her, backlog of accrued rights component of pension payments to pensioners causing delay in payment over the years, is almost cleared by the Federal Government.
She said within the last seventeen years, the federal government has been paying N49billion per month to offset the accrued rights backlog of pensioners.
She also said: “Late payment of pension to pensioners will be a thing of the past very soon as required steps in that direction have been taken by the federal government, whose retirees are affected.”
She advised pensioners to carry out required documentation a year to their retirement in fast tracking the whole process.
The committee, however, said the yearly repeated N102million overhead subvention given the agency by the federal government will be removed aside the N26billion yearly inserted into the Commission budget without cash backing.
