Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) have invested more than N14.5 trillion of workers’ retirement savings in Federal Government securities as of March 2025, highlighting the industry’s continued heavy reliance on sovereign debt instruments.
According to data from the National Pension Commission (PenCom), investments in government securities reached N14.48 trillion in the first quarter of 2025. This represents 62.09% of total pension assets, valued at N23.33 trillion.
By comparison, in June 2023, PFAs held N10.86 trillion in government securities, or 64.78% of total assets worth N16.76 trillion. This indicates an increase of N3.62 trillion over six quarters — a rise of 33.3% — even though the asset class shed 2.69 percentage points in overall portfolio weight.
The breakdown shows: Federal Government Bonds remain the backbone of pension portfolios, climbing from N10.40 trillion in June 2023 to N13.79 trillion in March 2025, an increase of N3.39 trillion (32.6%). However, their share of total assets fell from 62.07% to 59.1%., treasury Bills surged by N400.8 billion (208.3%), from N192.4 billion to N593.2 billion, raising their portfolio share from 1.15% to 2.54%.
The figures reaffirm that federal debt instruments remain the cornerstone of Nigeria’s pension industry, though portfolio diversification is slowly expanding into other asset classes.
