Pension assets have fallen by N90 billion in the first quarter of the year, from N19.75 trillion to N19.66 trillion at the end of the first quarter (Q1), a situation attributed to low market patronage.

The report was contained in data released by the National Pension Commission (PenCom) on their website.

Explaining further, the report stated that the equities market attracted N2.3 trillion of the fund, having risen from N1.77 trillion in December 2023.

The development, according to PenCom, translated to N530 billion additional investments in the equities market within three months.

This also means the equities market accounts for about 11.79 per cent of the N19.66 trillion pension fund assets as of March 2024.

A report has quoted the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp), Oguche Agudah, as saying that the development has brought about an increase in allocation to domestic equities by the pension funds from 8.56 per vent in to 9.89 per cent of their total assets.

He added that foreign ordinary shares also played a role in the surge, even as the devaluation of the naira meant the revaluation of foreign assets upwards, leading to a growth in the value of foreign assets held by CPFAs by over N118 billion, the report further stated.

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