premium

The value of pension Assets Under Management(AUM) of Premium Pension Limited (PPL) has currently risen above N1.2 trillion, says the acting managing director/CEO, Kemi Oluwashina.

Oluwashina, while speaking at the Lagos Retirement Forum for its customers in Ikeja, Lagos, last week, noted that her Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) pays about N1 billion to about 25,000 retirees monthly in a move to ensure that retirees enjoy their golden years at retirement.

Assuring its Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) holders that, “we want to grow people’s wealth so that they can enjoy their golden years as it’s at the core of what we do, our mission. They are the reasons why we’re in business,” she added, “the pension industry has paid over a trillion in pension benefits, apart from the fact that we have N20 trillion in assets. We have paid over a trillion under programmed withdrawal and the same thing under annuity.

Explaining the reason for the engagement, she said: “In our business, we are managing money for people who would then retire and you know, who are the best people to tell you how the soup is sweeter than them? because they are already benefiting from the system, which is why we organised this event.

“We’ve not had it in a while for a lot of reasons. We’ve been having more with those who are still in employment. But we felt, you know what, these people need to be heard. We need to give them that platform to be heard. We need to give them that platform to know that they are appreciated. And that’s why we started, you know, we resumed this.”

On adequacy of monthly pension entitlements compared to monthly salary when one is in active service, she stated that, “For those in the federal staff, even a director, when he retires now, he does not get up to N100,000. Now, for a man who earns over N200,000 plus, he retires and is getting N40,000, N50,000, or N30,000, how can that be sufficient? It’s a conversation we’re starting to have. What we started was compliance first, let people comply.

“Adequacy is now the next level of conversation we need to have, especially with discussions around minimum wage because the minimum pension is an offshoot of that. But beyond minimum pension, the federal government did not say put all your money into this. They’ll say, we only told you to put eight per cent of your basic housing transport into this scheme. To fund your life at retirement, then your employer contributes 12 per cent.

“So, 20 per cent of basic housing transport, not of your total package, is, in most cases, not likely to be sufficient for anybody at the time. And that is where the additional voluntary contribution comes in.”

She assured both its contributors and retirees of premium service delivery backed up by a strong technology system that ensures quick and immediate response to enquiries.