Pension risk management in a developing economy:lessons from the nigerian capital market

The killer risk in any pension scheme is the failure of pension asset sufficiency to meet the promised benefits to retirees. A Pension Risk Management aims at ex ante arrangement to protect retirees’ standard of living. Nigeria introduced pension reforms in 2004 fatefully at the same time when extensive reforms were made in the banking sector. Prior to the Act being passed, there was a major proposition that pension funds should not be invested in Nigerian capital market. This paper reviews pension risks of the new DCS (Defined Contributory Scheme) and the implications of investing pension fund in the capital market of a developing economy. A trend analysis was performed on market index and capitalization and a simulated pension asset was subjected to pension risks. Despite the asset allocation guideline on investments by the Pension Commission, there is certainly uncertainty concerning guaranteeing pension payments in future due to unmanaged pension risks. This paper suggests investment policy should accompany a DCS based on the risk appetite of workers, minimum guarantee of returns on investment of pension assets and a range of interest rates for actuarially determined annuities. Further studies may examine wither PFAs should operate as closed end or open end mutual funds.