Lagos – Mr Chris Battaglia, the Chief Executive Officer of World Pension Summit ‘Africa Special’ (WPS Africa Special), says the global pension assets has hit 54 trillion dollars.
Battalia said this in Lagos on Thursday at a press conference ahead of the forthcoming World Pension Summit ‘Africa Special’ scheduled for Abuja from Sept. 27 to Sept. 28.
He said that the summit would create a platform for countries in Africa to compare notes on ways to grow the industry.
Mrs Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, the Director-General of National Pension Commission (PenCom), said that the African pensions systems were not at par with those of developed countries because of low contributions.
Anohu-Amazu said that Pencom had generated a pool of long-term funds in the region of N5.73 trillion as at the end of June 2016.
“For Nigeria, the summit provides a unique opportunity that will enable it improve the industry, drive appropriate channels of investment that leverage pension funds for real sector development,” she said.
According to the director-general, in the 12 years of the commission’s existence, it has painstakingly built a strong dependable pension scheme for the country.
She said that the theme of this year’s summit, tagged “Pension Innovations: The African Perspective, had been carefully chosen to give social and economic stability to Africa pension industry.
Anohu-Amazu said the summit would also seek to drive into greater pre-eminence the revolutionary strides and achievements of African governments in the areas of pensions
“PenCom seeks to galvanise not only the country pension system, but also those of other African countries towards sustainability and social-economic impact.
“The use of technology will be used to show new inventions that will improve pension systems.
“The summit will feature actuary science, insurance coverage, extension and other pension related fields.
“There will be brainstorming on micro pension because this is the next destination of the world pension system,” she said.
She said that during the summit an award ceremony would be held to stimulate and encourage African scheme owners and funds to work on professionalising retirement practice in Africa.
“The awards ceremony is an integral part of the summit as reward for excellence, ” she said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Founder, WPS, Mr Eric Eggink and the Commissioner Inspectorate of PenCom, Alhaji Abubakar Kaohe, were also present at the occasion. (NAN)