BY GABRIEL MICHEAL—Pension operators have been urged to use technology to make their operations quicker, simpler and more scalable.
Mr Oguche Aguda, former Chief Executive Officer, Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria,(PenOp), stated these while delivering a paper titled Post Recapitalisation and Market Dynamics in Nigerian Pension Industry at the 11th Annual National conference of Nigerian Association of Insurance and Pension Editors( NAIPE) in Lagos, recently.
According to him operators must ask themselves the question on how to leverage technology to make their operations quicker, simble and help them to scale.
He implore them to also meditate on how to use Artificial Intelligence to compete as well as how to manage cyber security threat.
Aguda highlighted fact about the on going recapitalisation exercise in the industry, as PenCom, having mandated all licensed pension fund administrators to raise their minimum capital from N5 billion to N20 billion and one percent more if their Asset Under Management is above N500 billion by June 2027.
Aguda said, second fact about recapitalisation in the pension sector is PenCom mandating all licensed pension fund custodians ( PFCs) to raise their minimum capital to N25 billion by June 2027.
He gave reasons for the pension sector recapitalisation as consolidation of the industry, need to shore up pension losses, to create confidence in the sector, to shape the industry for greater activities and to strengthen the industry.
Aguda warned the pension sector operators that recapitalisation was not the end of the business but just a piece of the puzzle pointing to them that in addition to the minimum recapitalisation directive there were other surrounding directives meant to make the industry stronger, more resilient and in line with the developmental needs of the country.
“Beyond recapitalisation, there are guidelines for cross- boarder pension contribution such as review of investment guidelines to allow for more investments in sectors that promote economic growth, guidelines for agents to deepen personal pension plan coverage and include minors, guidelines for improved corporate governance of licensed pension fund operators, framework for payment of additional benefit for retiring civil servants as well as framework for pension compliance certificate and contribution,” he highlighted..
On current pension market dynamics, Aguda said, overview of the entire market shows that the banking sector, insurance sector and investment managers are core owners of the market.
He listed banks which have stakes in the pension sector as Stanbic IBTC Bank which owns Stanbic IBTC Pensions, Access Bank which owns Access ARM Pensions, GTCO which owns GTCO Pension Managers, Fidelity Bank, which owns Fidelity Pension Managers Ltd and FCMB which owns FCMB Pensions.
Aguda highlighted pension institutions owned by insurance firms as Leadway Pension Managers owned by Leadway Group, Crusader Sterling Pensions, Oak Pensions Limited and Veritas Glanvils Pensions .
According to Aguda, those owned by investment groups include Parthian Pensions, Trustfund Pension, Cardinalstone Pensions and. CitizensPensions.
