By Funsho Balogun

The Chairman, Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria, PenOp, Eguarekhide Longe has disclosed that 70 per cent of the pension funds is invested in Federal Government bonds and treasury bills.

According to him, FGN bonds are currently being used to finance recurrent expenditure.

“If this much is being invested in recurrent expenditure and it’s not bringing capital into the industry, we are not quarrelling with government, we are very open and ready to partner with government on well-conceived projects,’’ Longe said.

Longe made the disclosure to counter allegations by government officials that Pension Fund Administrators, PFAs are not willing to invest pension funds towards improving infrastructure in the country. He stated that a lot of effort must be put into conceiving, designing and execution of such projects which can usually end up being very cumbersome.

He said that while this may be a very tough task, it is the only way of ensuring that money belonging to retirees is not wasted.

He pointed out that investors must be able to get the right concessionaires and contractors with squeaky clean reputation which is a rarity in this part of the world. He said the pension fund operators would assist government with funding if the government floats infrastructure bonds to which the operator can invest in, provided that such infrastructure are in line with the investment guidelines in the Pension Reform Act(PRA) 2014.