The nation’s Contributory Pension fund has hit a N4.7 trillion mark which have now provided Money Deposit banks with stable deposits with which they can to lend on long-term basis.
Currently, over 6.5 million people are contributors from 180,586 employers that have registered with the scheme, the Director-General of Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, Mr. Benjamin Ezra Dikki has revealed. He told a delegation led by the Ambassador of the European Union, EU, to Nigeria and Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, Mr. Michel Arrion in his office in Abuja that the pension reform was one of the bureau’s success stories.
A statement by the BPE spokesman, Mr. Chigbo Anichebe, quoted Mr. Dikki as saying, “the Pension Reform initiated and implemented by the BPE has impacted positively on the Nigerian economy”. Under the scheme, he noted, 20 Pension Fund Administrators, PFAs, seven Closed Pension Fund Administrators, CPFAs and four Pension Fund Custodians, PFCs, were established, in the last 11 years.
He said the various reforms carried out by the Bureau had impacted positively on the Nigerian economy and that the over-riding objective of the reforms was to create an enabling environment for private sector investments though: institution of sound sector policies; Liberalization of the sectors by abrogating monopoly laws; Delineation of the roles of policy formulation from regulation and operations; Establishment of appropriate legal and regulatory framework; Setting up of independent regulators; and Mitigation of risks to encourage private sector investments.
The D-G told the delegation that to sustain the gains of reforms; the bureau had initiated eight more Bills which were recently transmitted to the National Assembly by the Federal Executive Council for enactment. They included: Railway Bill, Inland Waterways Bill, Ports and Harbour Bill, Federal Roads Authority Bill, National Roads Fund Bill, National Transport Commission Bill, Competition and Consumer Protection Bill and Postal Sector Reform Bill.
Dikki listed Housing, National Parks, Partial Privatization/Restructuring of the two Nigeria’s Development Finance Institutions (DFIs)-Bank of Industry and Bank of Agriculture, Privatization of the Nigerian Commodity Exchange and Restructuring/Commercialization of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria as some of the other initiatives the Bureau is currently prosecuting.
In his remarks, Amb. Arrion pledged to partner with the BPE in its reform programme with a view to facilitating regional integration. He pledged that his office would adequately sensitise European investors that Nigeria is safe for business and indeed Africa’s investment destination.
