I see pension enrolment climbing to 15mn in 5 years – Wilson Ideva

The pension industry is growing bigger by the day, and the landscape is becoming more competitive with only proactive players that that are ready to provide quality service to lead the future. Wilson Ideva, managing director/CEO, Premium Pensions Limited in this interview with select journalist including Modestus Anaesoronye, share his thought on the company’s recent awards at the World Pension Summit, developmental trends in the industry, future of the business and value creation for pension contributors. Excerpts

Premium Pensions Limited at the last Pension Summit Africa Special held in Abuja won two major awards, why do you think you deserve these awards and what does it mean for the company?

First and foremost, let me give glory to God for the awards because it is not easy, for you could have worked hard without people noticing what you are doing, let alone appreciating it. But, in our case, we thank God Almighty that our efforts are beginning to yield result. So, we are very grateful for what happened at the World Pension Summit, Africa Special. T

he event is an Africa initiative- all the pension fund administrators in Africa put together. Premium Pension was able to win two awards in two special categories, and that really gives me a lot of excitement. One of the awards is for being the best in terms of corporate governance in pension administrator and the second was as best in wide coverage area. The two awards to us in Premium Pensions are very special.

You asked why we think we deserve the awards. I will tell you that even entering from the gate of this company, you will see the difference between us and other pension fund administrators. The things we do are quite unique and different; how we do them are unique and different. We have a team spirit at Premium Pension, every person knows what he or she is expected to do and we are all doing that.

We are not building individuals here, but structures, because this is the greatest challenge we have in Africa.  We don’t have a situation where you have a super managing director, when he leaves, the whole place collapses and when he is coming; every person is running around him. That does not happen here. I am just first amongst equals; I see my team members as my mates, and every morning I go round the offices to greet and thank them.

I also get a first-hand of the challenges they are facing. In terms of corporate governance, here, you can find out from the staff, we pride ourselves, and whatever is due to you, you get it. Things are well structured. We are not playing by the ears, we do not wait until something happens and decide what to do. We know what to do in every situation. These are things we inherited and we are building upon them and we are grateful to the founding fathers of this company. In terms of wide coverage, last year, we decided to promote the industry; this is because we know that if the industry grows, the individual pension fund administrators will grow. I always told my colleagues that it should not be the case of making an advert for their companies, though that is good, but it would not build the industry. If we have a strong industry, a robust industry, then, individual PFAs would grow. So, we started a campaign we called ‘A Reward for Hassle’. The campaign was deployed through the social media, which has to do with the younger generation.

The younger generations are not worried about pension, but how they can survive today. So, we decided to create awareness amongst the old and the young. The campaign took us round the federation and the large following on the various platforms – Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, showed it was well embraced. In the campaign, we had star prizes and the campaign was not theoretical. The star prize winners were here, and presented their prizes. The campaign created awareness for the pension industry. If you hear of enrolment of 7.2 million within the pension industry and contributions above N6 trillion, people would say we have done well, but if you compare that to the population and workforce, we are yet to start. With the campaign, we were able to reach as many people as possible. The campaign cost the company so much, but the emphases was not on Premium Pension, but on the pension industry. We encouraged people to enrol, and the campaign had paid-off.

We also understand that we are in a rated business, which we must put a face to. In the past three years, we have established 25 branches. You know what it takes to establish a branch in the country today, where you provide a generator, security and almost everything. You are the local government of yourself. We have created structures that will help the business to jumpstart and these are what we have been doing. When you talk about coverage, there is no location in this country where you cannot find us. Even during the difficult times in the North East, we were in Borno, our staff were in Maiduguri, Yobe, Yola and Gombe and they remained there. Today, despite the militancy in the Niger Delta, we are still there. That is our measure of coverage and how we see the industry.

People are talking of electronic age, we believe in it, but also, we have clientele that are having challenges with electronics, and these are people we must cater for. They want to have a one and one discussion with a customer service officer; they need a pension fund administrator to talk to about their pension, and that is the message we have been sending out to the public. Most Nigerians do not check their statements.

They do not know whether their pension fund administrators are making fair returns, above inflation rate return or real return which is above inflation. People do not care, but we have a duty as practitioners in the industry to enlighten the people; create pension education so that people would be aware. If the awareness is there, it would generate a lot of interest in the industry, so that is what we are doing, and I think that has stood us out and we are not relenting because we know that the reward for hard work is more work.

We know that the challenge is going to be fiercer. We are ahead of the curve, we know where we are going, and people have not seen anything yet. We do not want to be benchmarked with a Nigerian company. I must confess, we pride ourselves as international company with best practices, so we want to be benchmarked with the best companies anywhere in the world. And we must be seen as such in terms of our staffing, physical outlook, service delivery and information and communications technology platforms.

What we have here in our head office is replicated everywhere in the country where we have our smaller versions. If you go to our offices in Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, Benin, Port Harcourt and Enugu, Yola, you will see the same thing just as we have at the head office. If you are building a brand, it must be the same anywhere, and this is what is standing us out.

With lots of stakeholder engagement, what is the future of the pension industry in the next five years?

The future for the industry is quite rosy because awareness is created on a daily basis. When we started, people were not worried about their return on investment, there was nothing distinguishing each PFAs, they were like the same, but in the last two to three years, they are beginning to distinguish themselves. Even within the industry, we know firms you can pride with service delivery, information and communications technology. We also know those you can pride with timeliness of services. So, in the next five years, there is going to be much awareness. Looking at where we are coming from, the history of pension industry in Nigeria, people did not give us the chance to succeed. People thought it was one of those government things that would come and fade away. But people are now seeing the difference as confirmed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. People are surprised that despite all the challenges we have in the country, the pension industry stands out.

With that alone, people are going to start giving attention to the pension industry. Retirement saving holders are going to be demanding better services in the next five years, people are going to be looking at the returns on their investment; they would be looking at their remittance and ask their employers if they have remitted their contributions. This is because it is a collective action. If your employer deducts your money and fails to remit as and when due, you are losing value for your money. So, that awareness will be created among the retirement savings accounts holders and in the next five years, there will be more demands from PFAs on service delivery and getting things done better.

We are also going to see a huge growth in the industry in the next five years. This is because our regulator, the National Pension Commission, has done great works in terms of bringing financial inclusion among the non participants for now. We believe that in the next five years, we are going to see a growth that would be quite geometrical. I see enrolment climbing to between 15 million to 20 million. I see assets under-management growing to over 20 trillion.

I know that starting an event is quite more difficult than climbing up. The plane has taken off in terms of the pension industry, we are not yet at cruising level, but we are almost getting to that. By the next five years, we may get to cruise level. At the cruise level, we might see a N20 trillion assets under management. We might be close to 15 million enrolments in the industry and we might see the use of information communications technology in the next five years. So, a pension fund administrator that wants to be competitive and wants to play in the next five years and does not want to be left behind should be thinking of information and communications technology. What will happen is that, we are going to have a shift from what we have in employer’s schedules – employers remitting for you, to individuals making contributions through their phones. It has happened in Kenya and Ghana and it is going to happen here. Whether you like it or not, every Nigerian has a phone and knows how to use it. Every Nigerian would be very happy if their old age is assured and the only way you can be assured of your old age is through pension. So, I see information technology playing a major role in the next five years.

That is what I see happening and it is going to be amazing. We need the press to spread the information and educate our people. This is because, when there is economic downturn anywhere in the world, it is an opportunity for people to rethink. The days for easy money in Africa, in Nigeria particularly are over.   In Africa setting, what we believe is that you train your child and when you are old they will take care of you. It is no longer a path. What is happening now is that the younger generations have their challenges. The situation is quite different. With the challenges before the younger generation, they may not have any surplus. If they do not have surplus, they cannot remember their parents. It is a reality.

Africans would always say God forbid, but that is the reality. A young graduate from school today, if he is not from a rich home, he would need about 10-years before he finds his bearing. In our time, maybe two to three years, but now, it is up to 10-years and within that 10 years, most parents will still be subsidizing. We need to really plan ahead, we need a lot of education among the populace, and we need the press to help us sing this because a lot of people are afraid whether the new pension would work. I want to assure you that this will work. It is working because of the separation of duties. It is not because pension fund administrators are different from other Nigerians; it is not that there is a new DNA in our blood. The difference is that rules have been put in place and enforced.

We also have a very strong regulator. The fear of our regulator is the beginning of wisdom for any operator. You dire not do something outside the norm. If you do, you will pay dearly including the dismissal of the chief executive officer. As the fund is getting bigger, the rules are being tightened, and you do not blame them. If you know where we are coming from and the negative talks about pension in the past, you will know that we are getting better and it will continue to get better.

Modestus Anaesoronye