Lagos — Managing Director of Trustfund Plc, Mr. Bernard Ekwe, has refuted allegations that it embezzled N54 billion pension assets transferred to his company by the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF).

Ekwe, who said this when he led his management team on a visit to the THISDAY Corporate Head Office in Apapa, Lagos, yesterday said the NSITF has to date only released a total of N48 billion of the N54 billion accruing to Trustfund, adding that if his company did not get N54 billion, it was therefore illogical to allege it embezzled what it does not have in the first place.

He added that the NSIFT held the proceeds of other pension assets due to Trustfund for over two years and refused to pay the interest accrued on the funds.

"There was a sale of pension properties by the NSITF and the amount realised was about N1.6 billion. These funds remain in the custody of the NSITF even when they are neither a PFA (Pension Fund Administrator) or PFC (Pension Fund Custodian).

"They have no right to hold onto pension assets, the funds remained with them for more than 20 months. Despite all entreaties by both the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) and Trust Fund that these assets be moved they refused to move them until close to two years and when eventually these assets were moved, the interest income that accrued on these funds were not remitted to Trust Fund," he said.

He stated that it is also impossible in the new pension scheme for a PFA to embezzle the pension funds that it is managing.

According to him, "The way the new pension scheme is structured and regulated, it is impossible. So we can say without any iota of contradiction, there is no truth in their false publications.

They are mischievous, they well know how these things work. We have the Pension Fund Custodians (PFCs) and we have the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs).

The pension assets are held in custody by the PFCs and not the PFAs; what the PFAs do is to provide investment and administrative services on the pension assets--the pension assets are not in their custody."

He added, "It is really absurd for any person in his wildest imagination to conceive or think that there will be a fraud or mismanagement of the pension assets by a PFA. What they have published in newspapers in the last two weeks is absolutely false and misleading."

"It shows that those that are behind the stories do not have a clear understanding of the new pension scheme. Trustfund is owned by seven institutions of which the NSITF is one of them. In fact, the NSITF owns 40 per cent of Trustfund. Of the ten directors on the board of Trustfund, NSITF has four directors on the board including the chairman of the board," he said.

Ekwe disclosed that there are certain assets that are still held by the NSITF, adding that by virtue of the provision of the Pension Reform Act, the NSITF ceased to do pension business.

The Act, he said, mandated them to transfer all the pension assets that were accumulated under the defunct Nigerian Provident Fund and other pension assets to the PFAs and PFCs.

"In 2006, the NSITF calculated the pension assets transferable to Trustfund to be about N54 billion of which about N46 billion was immediately transferred to Trustfund. To date, we have received about N48 billion from the NSITF and the assets have been transferred to our custodians. We want to put it on record that those assets that have been transferred to Trustfund by the NSITF are in the custody of our custodians. Namely, Unit Pension Custodians, UBA Pension Custodians and Diamond Pension Custodians," he said, adding that all its pension assets are in the custody of these three custodians.

"What has happened is that when the N54 billion was established as the pension assets transferred to Trustfund Plc, in the course of the transfer, there were also certain pension assets that were not included in the initial N54 billion. There were pension assets unlike all the other pension assets there were still expected to be transferred or remitted to Trustfund and its custodians. The crux of the matter is that these pension assets that have been discovered are still in the possession of the NSITF and the management of that organisation has refused to remit these pension assets," Ekwe said.