Business News

PFAs boost investment in infrastructure to N40.52 billion

The Pension Fund Administrators have increased investments in infrastructure to N40.52 billion, according to the latest PenCom’s monthly report.

Published

9 months ago

January 22, 2020

Titobioluwa Okunade

Pencom, pension, Nigeria’s Pension Asset increased by N228 billion in October, PFAs increase investment in infrastructure to N40.52 billion

Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) have increased their investments in infrastructure from N37.5 billion in October 2019 to N40.52 billion by November 2019. This was disclosed in the National Pension Commission’s (PenCom) latest monthly report.

The report stated that out of the N9.9 trillion pension fund assets, about N7 trillion had been invested in the Federal Government securities by the PFAs, which represents 70.88% of the total fund size.

According to the commission, as at May 2015, the operators had invested N568 million in infrastructure and increased investments to N1.35 billion in December 2015, adding N2.06 billion in infrastructure bond in December 2016. The investment rose to N6.86 billion in December 2017 and as of the end of September 2018, N17.12 billion had been invested in infrastructure.

The breakdown: Pension fund assets were worth N9.9 trillion as at November 2019, according to the monthly report. Here are some of the assets invested in by the PFAs.

Federal Government’s securities took a chunk of the pension assets, with the report showing that N4.86 trillion as an investment in Federal government bonds alone.
This was followed by N2.1 trillion investment in Treasury Bills while investment in Sukuk bond, agency bond, and green bonds, with N78.1 billion, N10.82 billion and N15.64 billion respectively.
There was a significant drop in cash and other related cash assets when the N45.14 billion recorded in November is compared to the N95.30 billion recorded in October.
The commission invested a sum of N117.79 billion in state governments’ securities, with state government bonds and corporate bonds taking the balance of 29.12%.
The N10.82 billion agency bond, according to the commission, was invested in two government agencies, the Nigeria Mortgage Refinancing Company and the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria.

However, a sum of N535.93 billion, representing about 5.36% of the fund, was invested in domestic ordinary shares, while foreign ordinary shares had a total investment of N62.6 billion, amounting to 0.69%.

[READ MORE: PFAs invest 71.4% total assets in FG securities)

Similarly, the sum of N5.03 billion was invested by the PFAs in foreign money market securities; N23.62 billion in mutual funds; N224.63 billion in real estate; N32.31 billion in private equity fund.

However, investments in Federal Government securities by PFAs are expected to adopt a downward trend due to various monetary policies adopted by the Central Bank.

Titobioluwa Okunade

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ENDSARS

#EndSARS: Protests may return if panels do not address all issues in 2 weeks – Former Nigerian Minister

Akinyemi says the #EndSARS protesters would return to the streets if their demands are not addressed in two weeks.

Published

33 mins ago

October 28, 2020

Omokolade Ajayi

Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, former Nigerian Minister of External Affairs, has disclosed that the judicial panels for inquiries have just two weeks to address all the issues raised by the #EndSARS protesters, as failure to do so may drag youths back to the streets.

This was disclosed by Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, during a news interview with ARISE TV this afternoon, as he called on the FG to urgently address the issues raised by the protesters, as these issues extend beyond police brutality and the immediate reform of the Nigeria Police force.

He explained during the interview that the current demands of the youths extend beyond basic needs, which remain the core mandate of the present administration.

He likened the #EndSARS protest to the #BlackLivesMatter demonstration and reiterated that demands of the youth extend beyond stomach infrastructure, as it is more of a call for good governance in a bid to address the concrete issues that the country faces.

He called for strategic actions towards combatting the evils of unemployment in Nigeria; called on the military to employ more military men to soak up the unemployment, and also provide security for the country.

On the issue of restructuring, Professor Akinyemi said restructuring is also key to solving the many problems facing the country.

The Professor of Political Science noted that the way forward for Nigeria will be for the government to utilize the Justice Mohammed Uwais report on electoral reforms and the 2014 National Conference report, which he believes addresses the issues confronting Nigerians.

What they are saying

During the interview, Professor Akinyemi said, “I will say and let me believe I am wrong, the judicial panels have just two weeks to address all these issues before the youths come back to the streets. The government should at least give the youths the impression that you have not set up all these panels to buy time, but that you are genuinely and seriously interested in addressing their issues.”

He reiterated the need for the employment of more police officers,

“We told the government, because I was part of that conference, that the United Nations said Nigeria needs 1.5 million policemen. We have only about 350,000 and we were recommending that the Nigerian government should employ 750,000 more policemen.”

“What we’ve seen in the past two weeks is that we don’t have enough men in uniform to guarantee security in this country if every part of the country decides to blow up. So you serve two purposes – employment and security, and those are things you can do immediately.

“We have just seen how every Governor was scrambling around in the past two weeks; if you allow each state to have its own state police, you wouldn’t have that experience. I have heard of a situation where the streets took over even governance in almost every state. So, restructuring is that you allow things to be done at the local level.”

Coronavirus

COVID-19: Jason Njoku and wife test positive

iROKOtv CEO and wife have contracted the novel coronavirus.

Published

3 hours ago

October 28, 2020

Ugonnia Ozibo

Jason Njoku and Wife testes positive to Covid-19

Jason Chukwuma Njoku, the co-founder and CEO of iROKOtv and his wife has tested positive for COVID-19. However, Mrs. Mary Njoku is feeling well.

Jason, disclosed this via his Twitter handle stating that “My enemies are hard at work in 2020. Mrs. Njoku and I tested positive for Covid-19. I’m not feeling great, but Mary is well. Literally no idea how I caught it. But we shall see this pass too.”

The media mogul did not reveal if his children caught the virus too.

My enemies are hard at work in 2020. Mrs Njoku and I tested positive for Covid19 😩. I'm not feeling great but Mary is well. 😷🤢. Literally no idea how I caught it. 🤷🏾‍♂️. But we shall see this pass too🙏🏾. pic.twitter.com/tnsP1BCPBB

— JasonNjoku (@JasonNjoku) October 28, 2020

Business

UK High Commission reopens visa application centres in Nigeria

Days after it was shut down, United Kingdom High Commission in Nigeria has announced the reopening of its visa application centres.

Published

3 hours ago

October 28, 2020

Chike Olisah

#EndSARS: We are monitoring developments in Nigeria closely - UK, UK High Commission in Nigeria to replace expired visa for free, as it restarts operations

The United Kingdom High Commission in Nigeria has announced the reopening of its visa application centres in the country.

This comes some days after the high commission had shut down its visa application centres in Victoria Island, Lagos and Abuja over the outbreak of violence arising from hijacked #EndSARS protests against police brutality and extra-judicial killings, which led to the loss of lives, vandalization, and looting of public and private assets across the country.

READ: Reps, NIDO, Ghana government respond to attack on Nigerian residential building

The disclosure was made by the High Commission in a statement through a tweet post on its official Twitter handle.

The High Commission, however, noted in its statement, titled, “Update on UK visa application centres in Nigeria” that its centres would not open on Thursday due to the public holiday in Nigeria, in honour of the Eid-El Malaud celebration.

The statement from the UK high commission, partly reads, “Our TLS contact visa application centres are now open in Nigeria. Following the recent closures, we are working hard to process all outstanding applications.’’

READ: NCC sets up committee to review licensing framework of Infrastructure Companies

“We thank you for your continued patience and understanding. Please note Thursday, October 29, is a public holiday in Nigeria and our Visa application centres will be closed.”

The reopening of the visa applications centres after they were shut about a week ago is due to the gradual return of peace and order to some of those trouble spots, following the intervention of security agents.

The UK High Commission had been very critical of the outbreak of violence in the country, especially the shooting of unarmed protesters at Lekki Tollgate by alleged military personnel, and asked the government to thoroughly investigate the incident and ensure justice is done.

READ: Buhari gives reason for silence on Lekki Tollgate shooting

In its statement, the High Commission said, “We remain concerned by acts of looting and violence in Nigeria and urge security services use restraint as the order is restored. Working with all stakeholders, judicial panels of inquiry must investigate all incidents, including Lekki and ensure accountability for crimes.”

What you should know

The Judicial Panel of Inquiry set up by the Lagos state government to handle all cases of police brutality in the state have also been mandated to conduct an inquiry into the shooting of unarmed protesters last week.

Amnesty International earlier said that 12 people were allegedly shot dead by the police and army at two locations during the hijacked protests.

Explore Data on the Nairametrics Research Website

Please see below 👇🏼 for an update on UK Visa Application Centres in Victoria Island, Abuja & Lagos.

➡️ For queries on individual applications, please visit: https://t.co/Z6U3959iB1 pic.twitter.com/kSlk5OBLtC

— UK in Nigeria🇬🇧 (@UKinNigeria) October 26, 2020