Increased and sustained investor interest in stocks like Nestlé Nigeria, Union Dicon Salt, Infinity Trust, Mc Nicholas, Cornerstone Insurance and 48 other advancing equities drove the market into positive terrain.

Financial expert attributed the development to the continuous release of companies annual financial reports and the increase of equity investment cap by the National Pension Commission, PenCom, for pension fund administrators.

Market capitalisation, which opened at N114.660 trillion, rose by N2.367 trillion, or 2.06 per cent, to close at N117.027 trillion.

Similarly, the All-Share Index (ASI) gained 2.06 per cent, or 3,687.45 points, to settle at 182,313.08, up from 178,625.63 recorded on Thursday.

Consequently, the year-to-date (YTD) return climbed further to 17.16 per cent.

The market breadth closed positive, recording 53 gainers and 33 losers.

Nestlé Nigeria, Union Dicon Salt, Infinity Trust, Mc Nicholas and Cornerstone Insurance led the gainers’ chart by 10 per cent each, ending the session at N2,662, N20.90, N9.90, N7.70 and N6.38 per share respectively.

Conversely, Skyway Aviation Handling Company led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent, finishing at N135, Guinness Nigeria trailed by 9.97 per cent, settling at N315 while Omatek Ventures shed by 9.39 per cent, closing at N2.99 per share.

Also, NPF Microfinance Bank fell by 6.51 per cent, ending the session at N5.60 and Etranzact dipped by 6.33 per cent, closing at N22.95 per share.

A total of 936.4 million shares valued at N52.7 billion were traded across 50,068 transactions, compared to 698.3 million shares worth N28.4 billion that was exchanged in N50,886 deals.

This revealed a 34 per cent increase in volume, 85 per cent growth in value and two per cent decline in deals.

Meanwhile, First Holding Company topped the activity chart in volume with 106.3 million shares valued at N5.1 billion.

Zenith Bank followed with 72.6 million shares worth N5.7 billion while United Capital traded 45.4 million shares valued at N963.2 million.

Guaranty Trust Holding Company sold 45 million shares worth N4.9 billion and Fidelity Bank transacted 31.4 million shares valued at N639.03 million.

Commenting on the market performance, Mr Aruna Kebira, Chief Executive Officer of Globalview Capital Ltd., attributed the rally to improved corporate earnings, dividend expectations and renewed institutional interest.

Kebira said the release of impressive results by companies such as Nigerian Breweries Plc had boosted investor confidence, adding that the brewer’s performance signalled a strong recovery from the challenges of 2024.

According to him, many consumer goods companies were gradually emerging from the impact of the 2024 currency devaluation, having posted significant growth in sales and turnover in 2025.

“We are seeing companies come out of the doldrums of 2024. The surge in sales and improved earnings suggest that some of them may be in a position to declare dividends,” he said.

Kebira noted that firms such as Nestlé Nigeria Plc and Nigerian Breweries could potentially reward shareholders, given their earnings outlook.

He explained that even unaudited results often provide a reliable basis for dividend projections.

“Sometimes, there is little difference between unaudited and audited accounts.

“Financial analysts can estimate dividend capacity by examining profit after tax and transfers to reserves. The balance often indicates what could be available for distribution,” he said.

On the role of pension funds, Kebira said the recent move by the National Pension Commission, PenCom, to adjust equity investment limits contributed to the bullish momentum.

“That is part of it. Pension Fund Administrators typically invest in fundamentally sound stocks and take long-term positions because they manage retirement funds with investment horizons of 10 to 15 years.

“With increased room to participate in equities, they are likely to take positions early,” he said.

He noted that the combination of improved earnings, dividend expectations and institutional participation made the market particularly exciting during the trading session.

Source: NAN

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He also called for the prompt implementation of long-overdue pension increases and a minimum pension guarantee, which would provide a safety net for the most vulnerable pensioners under the CPS.

The president gave the directives after receiving a briefing from Ms. Omolola Oloworaran, the Director General of the National Pension Commission, PenCom.

President Tinubu further mandated the PenCom DG to urgently resolve the longstanding police pension issue, emphasising that members of the police force who served and protected the nation deserved to retire with dignity and peace of mind.

READ ALSO: Falcons, D’Tigress and the shame of our empty hospitals

The DG also briefed the president on ongoing efforts to ensure the value preservation of pension fund assets, especially in the face of inflation and macroeconomic pressures, as well as plans to introduce foreign currency contributions to enable Nigerians in the diaspora to participate in the pension system

President Tinubu strongly supported the reforms, reaffirming his administration’s commitment to inclusive growth and protection for ordinary Nigerians.

During the briefing, the DG updated the president on a suite of transformative pension initiatives to enhance retiree welfare and expand the Pension Scheme’s reach.

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Governor Sanwo-Olu spoke during a courtesy visit by the Director-General of the National Pension Commission, Ms Omolola Oloworaran, at the Lagos House, Ikeja.

The governor said his administration was deliberate and intentional in ensuring that it did not have any outstanding liability, noting that the government was committed to the welfare of civil servants and pensioners in Lagos State.

He said: “We want to appeal that each time we come around for bond issuance, you look at us as A Star and use that measure of mark to quickly support without delaying whatever it is that we are asking for.

“We want to assure you that we are doing things responsibly. All the fundraising is targeted at projects that have life-changing impacts that touch our citizens in various ways. We are always mindful of how we raise those bonds and what we need to use them for.

“For us, it is all about creativity. It is all about ensuring that we can beat inflation at its own track, and we can deliver using private funding quicker, faster and better.”

READ ALSO: U-20 AFCON: Nigeria through to knockout stage after Kenya draw

Speaking earlier, the Director-General of the National Pension Commission, Ms Omolola Oloworaran, hailed Governor Sanwo-Olu’s giant strides in Lagos State, declaring that PenCom is grateful for what the governor is doing in the pension space.

Oloworaran, while speaking on the Report of the Routine Pension Examination carried out in October last year, which she presented to Governor Sanwo-Olu during the visit, said the report about Lagos State was ‘A’.

She said: “I congratulate you (Governor Sanwo-Olu) for the great strides you are making in Lagos State. Under your leadership, Lagos State has continued to demonstrate responsive governance for delivering tangible solutions like pioneering the mass transit solution like the Blue Line Rail to affordable healthcare, public education and delivering urban service. I am sure the residents of Lagos are happy with what you are doing.

“Your initiative on job creation, youth empowerment and support for small businesses is really helping to develop the state and build livelihoods for millions of residents of Lagos. You are really doing a lot in the state.

“The governor has been very supportive of the Contributory Pension Schemes and continues to prioritise the financial security of Lagos State workers. He has continued to set the standard, and as of today, almost 100 per cent of Lagos State employees are covered under the pension scheme. It is all multiple wins, and I am grateful for what you are doing in the pension space. The report that was provided is A”.

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Ms. Oloworaran is a finance and banking expert with many years of experience.

According to the president’s media aide, Mr. Ajuri Ngelale, who made the announcement, the appointment is subject to the confirmation of the Nigerian Senate.

He said the president anticipated a goal-oriented leadership to drive efficiency and superlative performance in the National Pension Commission as the prime regulator of the Nigerian Pension Industry.

READ ALSO: Former Senate President, Anyim, Ogba, dump PDP for APC

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The commission said this in a statement on its official Twitter handle on Thursday.

APRs represent an employee’s benefits saved up while in service up to June 2004, when the CPS came into effect.

PenCom added that the beneficiaries were retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS.

The commission appreciated the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari for his untiring support and commitment to the implementation of the CPS that continued to ensure the welfare of retirees.

It added that it was processing remittances into the various Retirement Savings Accounts, RSAs, of the affected retirees and their Pension Fund Administrators, PFAs, and that the commission would notify them in due course.

Source: NAN

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This is contained in a statement signed, by the Head, Corporate Communications Department, National Pension Commission, PenCom, Mr Peter Aghahowa, and made available to newsmen in Lagos.

Aghahowa said that the federal government had earlier settled all arrears of accrued pension rights payments to the verified and enrolled retirees up to December 2020.

Source: NAN

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The Director General, PenCom, Mrs Aisha Dahir-Umar, said this at the 2021 Journalists Workshop held on Monday in Lagos, with the theme: Positioning the Pension Industry in the Post COVID-19 Era.

Dahir-Umar, represented by Mr Peter Aghahowa, Head,  Corporate Communication, PenCom, noted that the consistent growth trajectory justified the commission’s overriding investment philosophy of ensuring the safety of pension fund assets.

She assured pension stakeholders that the implementation of the CPS remained on course.

Dahir-Umar stated that the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a review of business processes across various organisations, which made it imperative for the commission to deepen technology innovation.

“COVID-19 has engendered socio-economic disruptions of the entire global order, with multifarious challenges in conducting hitherto routine activities.

“It was, therefore, imperative for the commission to deepen technological innovation to navigate through the challenges imposed by the pandemic.

“The most recent technological innovation introduced by the commission is the in-house designed and developed online enrolment application.

“The application has capabilities to register, verify and enroll prospective retirees of Treasury-Funded Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs),” she said.

According to her, by the  deployment of this new application, mass gathering of people has been avoided while enhancing convenience for the prospective retirees through a seamless enrolment process.

The DG mentioned that another notable technological innovation by the commission was the design and deployment of the Retirement Savings Account, RSA, Transfer System, RTS, which was launched in November 2020.

She emphasised that public enlightenment and education were some of the five strategic focus areas currently pursued by the commission.

“This is considered germane considering that 17 years after the pension reform in Nigeria, there still exists a knowledge gap on the CPS.

“Consequently, the commission is committed to reinvigorating its public enlightenment and education drive in order to address this challenge,” she said.

According to her, other strategic focus areas of PenCom included the resolution of outstanding pension liabilities of the federal government; portfolio diversification of pension fund investments.

She also mentioned improvement in customer service delivery across the pension industry and unrelenting pursuit of sustainable growth of the pension industry by expanding the coverage of the CPS.

Source: NAN

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Yet, without the police, security of lives and property will be grossly compromised, a reality which has placed Nigerians in a quandary.

So, what to do? Reform the institution and re-orientate its personnel. Nigerians unanimously agree that is the way to go. President Muhammadu Buhari does not disagree either. And his appreciation of this crisis and the urgency it demands is at the core of his vow to improve the welfare of Nigerian policemen.

But the problems are hydra-headed. Nigerian policemen have the misfortune of being paid very low wages. That is the biggest impediment against attracting skilled manpower into the force. As the common English idiom goes, “If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.”

Worse still, not only are police officers poorly remunerated while in active service, in retirement, they don’t fare any better because of the historically low wages.

So, any policy aimed at addressing police welfare must be fundamental and not superfluous. It must assuage the agitation for equitable pension package commensurate with what colleagues in other ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) get.

But the good news is that there are low hanging fruits which the government can harvest.

The average policeman is mortally afraid of the unknown: life after retirement. This fear informs most, if not all, of their most egregious conduct while in active service.

So, any attempt to address the welfare of the police must take a peep at the future. How can policemen be assured of a decent life after 35 years of service to fatherland?

Granted, there will always be bad apples, who, no matter what, will allow their greed overcome their sense of decency and fidelity to public good. But if policemen are assured of improved welfare in and out of service, it becomes a great disincentive for odious conduct.

To ensure that every worker is meaningfully rewarded at retirement, the Pension Reform Act 2014 reviewed upwards the minimum rate of pension contribution from 15 per cent to 18 per cent of monthly emolument, where 8 per cent will be contributed by employee and 10 per cent by the employer. Unfortunately, six years after, this has not been implemented.

And here, the Nigeria Police Force Pensions Limited – the Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) licensed by the National Pension Commission (PenCom) in accordance with the Pension Reform Act (PRA 2014) to exclusively manage the pension assets of all police personnel – has done a yeoman’s job in the last six years.

Even President Buhari acknowledged this fact on October 20, 2020 when he virtually commissioned the magnificent NPF Pensions House in Abuja, the first purpose-built corporate headquarters of any PFA in Nigeria.

Said he: “To the NPF Pensions Limited, I wish to applaud your company for instituting a Retirees Resettlement Support Scheme through which you provide some form of financial support to retired police officers to enable them to resettle fully in retirement after meritoriously serving the nation.

“Taking your services to the doorstep of police officers by maintaining an office in each police command and formation is also very laudable … I urge you to continue your untiring efforts in collaborating with the police authorities towards improving the welfare of both serving and retired personnel of the Nigeria Police Force.”

Both points are important. The NPF Pensions Limited is a child of necessity. The Nigerian government which modelled the country’s Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) after the Chilean scheme that exempted both the armed forces and the police, insisted that the police will be part of its own scheme while exempting the military.

Before 2014, policemen were scattered in all the other 20 PFAs and even when the authorities requested exemption, the government demurred, insisting that the police institution was so big that it was not in the best interest of the country to let policemen out of the pension loop.

So, NPF Pensions Limited was a compromise whereby instead of letting the police exit the pension scheme, the National Pensions Commission (PenCom) in 2014 licensed a PFA exclusively dedicated to serve the police with a vision “to be the benchmark in Pension Fund Administration in Nigeria.”

Its mission, “To provide quality customer and financial advisory services to stakeholders and adopt investment strategies that would yield the best possible returns on their pension assets,” was even more ambitious.

Prior to its establishment, a large number of policemen on the CPS were neither receiving statements on their Retirement Savings Accounts (RSA) nor had any communication with the PFAs, and, therefore, didn’t know what was happening to their accounts.

So, the first task of the new PFA was to get in touch with their clients by locating policemen wherever they were in Nigeria. Offices were set up in all the 56 police formations and commands across the country.

Working also through the police pension offices and six regional offices with pension desk officers, NPF Pensions took their services directly to the officers wherever they are located.

To ensure that issues are addressed instantly, all the 62 offices are online, real time. It was a strategic move that not only eased the access of police officers to information, but also dramatically eased the stress of documentation by creating awareness.

For the first time, policemen could make enquiries on their Retirement Savings Account (RSA) from the comfort of their offices or homes by making use of self-service channels.

NPF Pensions strongly believes that the implementation of the 10 per cent employer contribution for the police will significantly enhance an officer’s RSA balance on retirement and is, therefore, pushing hard for its implementation.

The goal was to ensure that every client was treated with respect and given priority attention regardless of rank. Then, the PFA ensured that policemen whose RSAs were either unfunded or underfunded were fully funded.

The result is phenomenal. Though the NPF Pensions is the 21st PFA to be licensed and came 10 years after the 20 others began operations in 2004, today, it is one of the five most performing PFAs in the country.

Though it has received as at September 30, 2020, N240.93 billion as transfers for 259,831 contributors, its assets under management as at October 31, 2020 stood at N630.23 billion. For accrued rights, it has received N62.90 billion and paid retirement benefits worth N50.27 to 18,422 retirees. A total of N1.51 billion has also been dispensed under the Retiree Resettlement Support Scheme (RRSS) to 10,400 retired officers while N4.46 billion was paid as death benefits to 1,173 next-of-kin of deceased officers. N523.12 million was paid as programmed withdrawal to 15,855 retired clients in October 2020.

The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, appreciates what the PFA has accomplished in so short a time. “NPF Pensions Limited has become one of the most successful companies to be established in the Nigeria Police Force,” by placing, within six years of existence, the footprint of the police in the pension industry, he said.

To be fair, assenting to the Bill establishing the Police Trust Fund as well as the Nigerian Police Act 2020, both of which address welfare issues in the police, are testimonies to Buhari’s commitment to reforming the police for optimal service delivery through an enhanced welfare system.

But the NPF Pensions has, nevertheless, come up with various policy proposals to improve the welfare of serving and retired officers, which the government has not given commensurate attention.

Those suggestions are the low hanging fruits Buhari must harvest now.

The PFA has made a case for the upward review of the accrued rights of police retirees to address low lump sum and low monthly pension and the recognition and treatment of police officers from the rank of assistant inspector-general of police (AIG) and above as public office holders who should retire with full benefits just like permanent secretaries, pursuant to Section 7 of the Pension Reform Act.

Buhari’s approval has also been sought for special gratuity for police retirees at the rate of 300 per cent of annual gross salary upon retirement so that the balances in their Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) will be channeled towards monthly pension payments and to bring them at par with their peers in the public service.

The request was anchored on Section 4 (4) of the Pension Reform Act which provides that an employer, notwithstanding the provisions of the Act, may agree on the payment of additional benefits to the employee upon retirement.

And the PFA has advocated for a separate budgeting and remittance of accrued rights for police officers, arguing that grouping the police with other MDAs makes the process cumbersome. This is actually the big elephant in Nigeria’s pension room.

Many retired officers can’t understand why they have to wait for months to access their retirement benefits and most times they blame, wrongly, their PFA for their ordeal. But the delay results from the inability of the government to release the accrued rights as and when due.

On police welfare, NPF Pensions has workable solutions and has the president’s back. All Buhari needs do is walk his talk by approving the policy proposals already on his table.

The contributory pension scheme comprises 7.5 per cent deducted from the salary of a public servant and the counterpart 7.5 per cent contributed by the employer – the government – and the accrued rights derived from the services such an officer rendered to the government.

Abuja’s inability to pay the accrued rights promptly is due to poor finances. Before the CPS was introduced in 2004, the accumulated pension liability was over N2 trillion for the public sector alone.

But the PFA is bridging this gap by providing its clients with quality financial advisory services and management continues to reinvent itself by adopting investment strategies that would yield the best possible returns on pension assets, which it then deploys in ensuring that retirees have better value for their contributions.

It does this by utilising a portion of the annual profit as a welfare package – Retirement Resettlement Support Scheme (RRSS) – for retirees before their retirement benefits are paid.

The N500 million RRSS, a corporate social responsibility scheme, is not part of its mandate. In fact, till date, it remains the only PFA that gives back to its clients and it has become the ultimate game changer in the industry since it was approved by the NPF Pensions Board in 2017.

For Buhari to have singled out the RRSS for commendation in his October 20 speech, amplifies its significance.

But police retirees, nevertheless, expect their benefits to be promptly paid after retirement.

Unbundling the accrued rights remittance process as requested by NPF Pensions will solve this problem.

To ensure that every worker is meaningfully rewarded at retirement, the Pension Reform Act 2014 reviewed upwards the minimum rate of pension contribution from 15 per cent to 18 per cent of monthly emolument, where 8 per cent will be contributed by employee and 10 per cent by the employer. Unfortunately, six years after, this has not been implemented.

NPF Pensions strongly believes that the implementation of the 10 per cent employer contribution for the police will significantly enhance an officer’s RSA balance on retirement and is, therefore, pushing hard for its implementation.

On police welfare, NPF Pensions has workable solutions and has the president’s back. All Buhari needs do is walk his talk by approving the policy proposals already on his table.

Will that give Nigeria a police force populated by angels? Not at all. Angels live in heaven. But it will significantly point the personnel to the direction of a different work ethics and policing worldview.

In repositioning the police, both the president and the police apparatchik have an ally in the NPF Pensions. If they listen, they may well find out that most problems bedeviling the police have solutions already proffered by the PFA.

That is why everything must be done to preserve its one-client status because NPF Pensions Limited is the best advocate for enhanced police welfare.

Policemen are better off if they speak with one voice. And their PFA gives them that collective voice and the leverage they need. Doing otherwise through the transfer window will run against the spirit of the PRA 2014. It will also be counterproductive.

*Amaechi, a journalist, is a pensions expert

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