The Pension Fund Administrators have reduced the amount of funds invested in real estate assets to N220bn as of the end of December 2019, latest figures obtained from the National Pension Commission have shown.

This amounts to 2.15 per cent of the total assets of the Contributory Pension Scheme, which stood at N10.21tn during the period under review.

The operators had invested N250.02bn in real estate as of the end of June 2019, PenCom stated. PenCom also disclosed that the operators invested substantial part of the pension funds in the Federal Government’s bonds, treasury bills and state governments’ securities.

It added that some of the funds were invested in agency bonds, supra-national bonds, commercial papers, foreign money market securities and open/close-end funds. Other investment portfolios, where the operators invested the funds are REITS, private equity funds, infrastructure funds, cash and other assets.

The pioneer Director-General, National Pension Commission, Mr Muhammad Ahmad, said there was a need to encourage development of enabling framework for pension funds to facilitate national development. In this case, he said, Public Private Partnership rules needed to be strengthened at both the national and state levels.

He said that Africa infrastructure collaboration initiatives such as roads, rails, telecommunication and power among others, should be promoted.

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