By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

Chairman of Board of Trustfund Pension Plc, Dr. Ngozi Olejeme has said that instability in the capital market coupled with the non payment of salaries by state governments adversely affected the performances of the Pension Funds Administrations, PFA in 2014 fiscal year.

File Photo: Aged Pensioners waiting for their entitlement

Meantime, the Managing Director of Trustfund, Mrs. Helen Da-Souza has said that the PFA recorded 20 percent increase from N166.8 billion in 2013 to N196.1 billion in the 2014, just as it declared 25 kobo dividend per share in the year ending 2014.

The Trustfund Pensions Board Chairman, Dr. Olejeme who disclosed the negative effect of instability in the capital market and the effect of unpaid salaries to workers during the 7th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Fund in Abuja, said these posed serious challenge in the pension sector in 2014.

Olejeme, represented by Comrade Peter Esele, a director with Trustfund Pensions said that the preparation and fear experienced during the 2015 general elections in the country and the crash in the price of oil products in the international market did not help the sector.

According to her “If one looks at the fact that Trustfund management declared the same 25 kobo dividend in 2013 and 2014, one may not appreciate how difficult the environment was in 2014.

“We should not forget that the preparations for the 2015 general elections was at all-time high in 2014, the crash in the price of crude oil in the international market also happened in the same year and non-payment of salaries even at the federal level also took place during that year.

“There was also the devaluation of the naira and we also witnessed the instability of the stock market where we invested about 30 per cent of our money. Overall, we have about 70 per cent of our resources invested in one form of money market or the other.

“Coupled with all of these, were all the negative forecasts about the outcome of the general elections. All of these were formidable factors that impacted negatively on the performances of businesses.