No plan to illegally use pension funds — Edun
•NLC, TUC write govt, seek assurances
Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, yesterday dismissed insinuations of plan by the Federal Government to borrow pension funds.
According to him, the Federal Government has no intention to illegally use pension funds to drive its activities.
The minister’s clarification came on a day the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and its Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, petitioned the Federal Government over its plans to borrow from pension fund, threatening to cripple the nation, if the fund was tampered with.
Edun said: ”It has come to my notice that there are stories making the rounds that the Federal Government plans to illegally access the hard-earned savings and pension contributions of workers. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
The pension industry, like most of the financial industry, is highly regulated.
There are rules and well laid out limitations about what pension fund assets can be invested in, and what it cannot be invested in.”The Federal Government has no intention whatsoever to go beyond those prescribed limits, or outside those bounds, which are to safeguard the pension of workers.”What was announced at the Federal Executive Council, FEC, was merely for information purposes only.
No approval was sought for any action whatsoever.
The information was that there was an ongoing initiative drawing in all the major stakeholders in the long term savings industry, those that handle funds that are available over a long period to see how, within the rules and regulations set by the law, that could be used maximally, most effectively, to drive investment in key growth areas, including infrastructure, housing and, of course, to find a way to provide Nigerians with affordable mortgages.
