New Telegraph

Sigma Pensions boss lauds sector’s reforms

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Sigma Pensions Limited, Mr. Dave Uduanu, has said that the successes being achieved in the Nigerian pensions industry can be replicated in other struggling sectors to achieve better economic growth.

Uduanu, who stated this at the digital dialogue organised by BusinessDay, spoke on Nigerian success stories in a panel with other business leaders. Speaking on the success of recorded in the pension industry, he said: “Today, we have about $30 billion of pension assets and with 8.5 million contributors and more importantly, we have about 256,000 retirees who receive their pensions regularly and I can say unfailingly before the 24th of every month.” “And indeed, it is a success story to be celebrated and I don’t think we should take it for granted because our national savings has increased from practically zero to five percent of GDP and it could be more. And our bond market is one of the deepest bond market in Africa after South Africa our equity market has struggled a bit and private equity market in Nigeria is now the second largest in Africa.”

“But more importantly, the pension industry in Nigeria is now second only to South Africa in Africa,” he said. According to him, the reforms that birthed the successes in the pensions industry include adequate capitalisation, good corporate governance, the right policies, and a renewed interest in enhancing domestic investments.

He noted that the power sector was one of the sectors in need of adequate capitalisation. He said: “On the power sector, I think one of the things we have seen is that we have players who are not well capitalised and therefore overleveraged so they are struggling.” “One of the things regulators must do beyond the technical assessment is also the commercial assessment but more importantly is to encourage players and companies who are already successful to either come into this sector or to back entrepreneurs coming to this sector with capital. I think well capitalized operators would be very important and we have seen that happen in banking and in pension.”

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