All Posts in "Day: August 18, 2022"

PenCom, PenOp plan industry media campaign on MPP

By Favour Nnabugwu
The National Pension Commission, PenCom plans industry wide media campaign in collaboration with Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria to achieved broad  awareness among targeted groups under its Micro Pension Plan,  MPP.
The Director-General of PenCom, Mrs Aishat Dahir-Umar said the Micro Pension Plan, MPP was conceptualized to expand pension coverage to the informal sector, including small-scale businesses, entertainers, professionals, petty traders, artisans, and entrepreneurs.
The MPP was implemented to curb old-age poverty by assisting the workers, as mentioned above, to contribute while working and build long-term savings to fall back on when they become old.
“To create awareness of the Micro Pension Plan, the Commission, in collaboration with the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria, is currently championing an Industry Media Campaign in major cities in the country’s six geopolitical zones”.
The Commission says strategic efforts to drive the Micro Pension Plan (MPP) remain one of its significant areas of focus.
Represented by Abdulqudir Dahiru, the Head of Corporate Communications of the Commission, said the capacity building workshop for Insurance and Pension Editors in Lagos on Thursday, explained that the MPP was conceptualized to expand pension coverage to the informal sector, including small-scale businesses, entertainers, professionals, petty traders, artisans, and entrepreneurs.
The theme of this year’s workshop, “Increasing Informal Sector Participation in the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS): The case for Micro Pension Plan”, according to the DG, aligns with the Commission’s objective of expanding coverage of the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS.
She noted that the objective is to bring in to the CPS, Nigerians working in the Informal Sector and those who are Self Employed through the Micro Pension Plan (MPP).
” Therefore, it is of utmost importance to educate the media on the MPP and enlist your support to make the Plan popular amongst informal sector workers and the self-employed.” Dahir-Umar noted.
Patoma Admin by — August 18, 2022 in Pension 0
E-Naira transactions hit N4bn – Emefiele

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

 

Transactions on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) digital currency, the e-Naira, platform has hit N4 billion since October last year till now.

The CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, at the on-going grand finale of the e-Naira Hackathon, in Abuja.

According to him, “Since the launch of this great initiative, the eNaira has reached 840,000 downloads, with about 270,000 active wallets comprising over 252,000 consumer wallets and 17,000 merchant wallets.

“In addition, volume and value of transactions on the platform have been remarkable, reaching above 200,000 and N4. billion, respectively.”

The governor disclosed that despite the successes recorded on the initiative, the bank, in collaboration with private sector operators has started the second phase of the e-Naira.

His words, “Notwithstanding this appreciable progress, the second phase of the project has begun and it is intended to drive financial inclusion by onboarding unbanked and underserved users leveraging offline channels.

“Hence, greater success is envisioned for the project with phase two expected to deliver more gains with a target of about 8,000,000 active users based on estimations using the diffusion of innovation model.”

Mr. Emefiele said that CBN remained strategic in charting the future of the Naira by balancing innovation with stability of the currency.

He said, “Pursuant to achieving its mandate of preserving monetary and financial stability, the CBN is strategic in charting the future of Nigeria’s legal tender, be it in its traditional or digital form as the economy transits to a digital one as well as charting the course for innovation in the financial sector and in the infrastructure underpinning financial markets.

” Hence, the importance of getting the balance right between innovation and stability.

“Against this background, the launch of eNaira was timely and strategic in complementing the various diversification and digitisation initiatives of the Federal Government including the launch of the Nigeria Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS), The National Broadband Strategy, as well as the introduction of the Start-Up Bill and a host of others.

The CBN boss said that the eNaira would make a significant positive difference to Nigeria and Nigerians, as it would ease their participation in the global digital economy.

His words, “Specifically, the eNaira is expected to enhance financial inclusion, support poverty reduction, enable direct welfare disbursement to citizens, support a resilient payments ecosystem, improve availability and usability of central bank money, facilitate diaspora remittances, reduce the cost of processing cash, and reduce cost and improve efficiency of cross-border payment among others.

“The eNaira was also developed to provide Nigerians with a cheap, safe and trusted means of payment. Unlike the offline payments channels like agent networks, USSD, wearables, cards and near field communication technology, the eNaira would give access to financial services to underserved and unbanked segments of the population.

“Innovative products and services built on the eNaira would enhance Nigerians’ participation in the digital economy and promote further development of a burgeoning Fintech ecosystem.”

Patoma Admin by — August 18, 2022 in Banking & Finance 0
PFAs recapitalization was important to accommodate more contributors- DG

By Favour Nnabugwu

 

 

The Director-General of the National Pension Commission, PenCom, Mrs Aishat Dahir-Umar revealed to that the government laid emphasis on the recapitalisation of the Pension Fund Administrators, PFAs, was to necessary to allow the accommodate more contributors in the country
With the theme of this year’s workshop, “Increasing Informal Sector Participation in the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS): The case for Micro Pension Plan” which sahe said aligns with the Commission’s objective of expanding coverage of the CPS.
Dahir-Umar during the one-day workshop organised by PenCom for the Nigerian Association of Insurance Correspondents, NAIPCO, the Financial Correspondents Association of Nigeria, FICAN and Labour Correspondents in Lagos, was glad to announced that all the PFAs were able to meet up the recapitalisation from N1billion to N5billion.
“As you know, PenCom increased the Minimum Regulatory Capital (Shareholders’ Fund) requirements of Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) from N1 billion to N5 billion last year. The recapitalization exercise had a 12-month transition from April 27 2021, to April 27 2022. As of the deadline, all Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) have complied with the Commission’s directive to increase the Minimum Regulatory Capital (Shareholders’ Fund) from N1 billion to N5 billion”
The DG revealed, “The  reason for the recapitalization exercise was to ramp up the capacity of the Pension Fund Administrators to manage the increasing number of registered contributors, and the value of pension fund assets under which I am pleased to inform you stood at 9,795,957million and N14.27 Trillion, respectively, as at June 30, 2022”
 She said that the exercise is intended to make the pension industry sound and healthy,
“it is expected that the exercise will bring about increased effectiveness and efficiency as well as improved service delivery in the industry”
Dahir-Umar  said the Commission is aware of the importance of the importance of the media and the role they played in the pension industry which is why PenCom takes the workshop seriously for collaborations to be strengthen.
“The Commission is mindful of your critical role in disseminating factual information to its stakeholders. So, it is imperative to constantly interact and inform you of recent developments in the pension industry and some of the Commission’s significant activities.
“It is of utmost importance to educate the media on the MPP and enlist your support to make the Plan popular amongst informal sector workers and the self-employed’.
Patoma Admin by — August 18, 2022 in Pension 0