IEI Anchor Pension pays N709.782 million to retirees

IEI Anchor Pension Managers Limited has paid out N709,782 million to retirees under its management in the financial year ended 31st December 2014, its Chairman Board of Directors, Jonathan Zwingina, has said.

He gave the figures while addressing shareholders of the company at its third yearly general meeting held in Abuja.

According to him, IEI Anchor Pension now manages pension assets in excess N39 billion from over 74,902 contributors.

“Our company has continued to grow stronger in the last ten years, albeit slowly but stronger nevertheless. It now has N32.3 billion assets under management in 2013 to N39.03 billion assets under management showcasing a 20.84 percent growth between 2013 and 2014. Our clientele base rose from 63,574 in 2013 to 74,902 in 2014. The sum of N709.782 million was paid to retirees during the period under review” he said.

He noted that the return on investment for pension industry has been quite commendable on a risk-adjusted basis.

We further reinforced our basis through continued portfolio management, reviewing the performance of our various funds and what instruments are necessary to deliver growth.

“We also made choices on where to invest, where to improve and where to divest. This was all with a view to delivering on sustained financial performance on the long term” he said.

According to the Chairman, “the introduction of the Pension Reform Act (2014) has given a new lease of life to operators and the industry as a whole. However, much is yet to be done on enlightening the public on the scheme and its many advantages as the enrollment of a meager 6.4 million employees out of an estimated 70 million working population in the country leaves much more to be done.”

He, however, lamented the poor state of adoption of the scheme by the states and local governments.

Also addressing the share holders, Mr. Glory Etaduovie, the acting Managing Director/CEO said “the business world is now customer-centric. We are too. We are driving this with renewed zeal and zest. Our customers are happy with us as our present size ensures great service delivery.”

“We are benchmarking global standards and our special purpose vehicle to achieve this is developing and growing the quality of our personnel and human resources. To achieve our dream of new heights in growing our market share, income and profits, quality of personnel is not negotiable with present competition. Motivation, staff development and training is heightened” he noted.