World Pension Summit Awards has boosted our reputation- Akande

Premium Pensions Limited at the recent World Pension Summit Africa Special held in Abuja won two awards on corporate governance and coverage. In this interview, Kayode Akande, executive director, Business Development & Investment bared his mind on what the award means for the PFA, impact on business development and additional responsibility with the awards. Excerpts:

What is the implication of these awards on business development for Premium Pensions?

This is a World Pension Summit Award. It’s a global award and the levels at which the awards were given was very significant. One was on coverage and the second was on corporate governance. So, that tells any enlightened client that the institution they are dealing with is reputable. Remember, we warehouse and manage assets of people, so the Pension Fund Administrator that manages your pension asset has got that credibility.

The industry has got credibility and your PFA is number one in terms of corporate governance. When it’s said that somebody is good in corporate governance, what that means is that all the necessary structure in managing your financial assets has been put in place and you can be rest assured. That is the level of confidence this kind of award will give to any customer who understands what the award is all about. When we talk of converge, it is measuring our ability to reach out to as many people as possible, particularly in the hinterland to get them on board the pension scheme. And that is why we are working with the National Pension Commission (PenCom) in promoting the micro pension initiative, so that as quickly as possible we can bring majority of the Nigerian working class into the pension scheme.

If you look at our GDP, what constitute the larger percentage of the GDP are activities of the people in the informal sector. So, what we are saying is that the bulk of people in the informal sector are not yet captured in the pension scheme. So, if we are able to capture that, you can imagine what will happen to pension assets. Customers and potential customers are already aware of this award and so when we go out there to prospect new clients it’s certain that our firm’s pedigree has already gone ahead of us.

So, it makes the business easier for us, and for business development it’s a big plus in generating new businesses. What are we saying?, what we have done so far, this is how we have been assessed by independent observers across the world and it can only get better.

With these awards come more expectations, responsibility and new challenges as well. How do you intend to shoulder this responsibility to remain competitive?

We have always expressed our desire to continue to expand our reach to ensure we bring more people into the pension scheme and that is why we deliberately continue to expand our business outlets. Not just physical presence at all of these places, we also reach out to our clients via the use of technology and that is actually the future of this business. But despite what technology is going to do, people at one time or the other will want to have a physical interaction with somebody in the office close to their location. That is why we continue to open offices in all the states of the federation and localities. We know what it entails to open a functional business office in Nigeria of today, and if we have gone ahead to continue to do that it actually means that we are ready to take more responsibility to carter for more clients as they come into our fold.

What other innovations are you looking at that will further enhance the quality of pension administration in Nigeria?

It’s not so much about innovation, it’s about service. There is a limit to what innovation you can do because we work in a highly regulated environment, even when you have got some innovations it has to be guided by laid down rules and regulations. We have got some products and technological innovations in respect of the micro pension scheme that will enable us serve our customers well, but it will still depend on the guideline. If there are no guidelines, you cannot do anything, but we have put structures together in readiness for approvals and the guidelines.

What is critical for us is to ensure that you are getting adequate returns on your pension assets with us. We don’t want a situation whereby through your working life say 30-35 years, you have contributed N10 million, and at the end of the day it’s only N10 million in your account. What we want to see is multiples of N10 million. Ordinarily, for somebody who retires after 30 -35 years and he has N10 million contribution, that person should be having not less than N65 million. How will that come about? That will be based on the investment expertise of your PFA. This is where our expertise is and you can check out what our level of returns has been over the years.