Towards a reputable Pension Fund Administration and financial security

By Gwen C. Onyebuchi

Mr Wilson Ideva was appointed as the Managing Director/C.E.O of First Guarantee Pension Limited effective May 18, 2020. First Guarantee Pension Limited (FGPL) is a Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) incorporated on 5 August 2004 under the Pension Reform Act, 2014 and licensed by the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) to manage and invest pensions on behalf of public and private sector employees.

Its final operating license as a Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) was granted on 13 January 2006. FGPL have an authorized share capital of ₦ 1 billion and a paid-up share capital of ₦ 584 million with a deposit for a share of N198 million. The company maintains a healthy reserve with accumulated retained earnings of N8.968 billion as of May 2020. Its shareholders comprise distinguished individuals and corporate bodies from all fields of the economy.

FGPL operates to sustain with paramount integrity and dependability, real wealth creation and financial security to persons at and during retirement in an uttermost innovative, professional and ethical manner, with excellent customer service and delivery of superior value to customers, shareholders and employees.

FGPL pension funds currently under the management of Mr Ideva as at June 18th, 2020 are at N227.798 billion: N196.278 billion in Retirement Savings Accounts (RSA), N28.279billion in retiree accounts and N1.877 billion in Legacy Funds.

To ensure premium service delivery, FGPL formed a strategic alliance with First Pension Custodian (a Subsidiary of First Bank Plc) a company with a solid reputation in the global custody market. The partnership is aimed at ensuring an end to end custody services based on global best practices and standards.

FGPL was the first Pension Fund Administration PFA to use the PFA Pension manager software developed by Covenant Visions International. The PFA manager system is a complete pension fund administration system comprising of administration, investment and accounting modules (all integrated). This offers PFA’s all the tools required to successfully manage employee contributions and benefits. The system is based on the dynamics of open architecture, enabling full plug and play compatibility with any other system having similar features. A major benefit of the system is that it is designed to enable pension fund administrators to make the most of opportunities that have opened up and those yet to open.

The management investment strategy committee of the organization which Mr Ideva also serves as the chairman formulates internal investment strategies to enable compliance with the investment regulations issued by PENCOM. The committee reviews discuss and make asset and sector allocation decisions based on the macroeconomic environment. The committee determines an optimal investment mix consistent with the risk profile evaluates the periodic performance of the portfolios and carry out such functions relating to the investment strategy as the management of First Guarantee Pension Limited may from time to time determine.

First Guarantee Pension Limited have a strong capital base, proven investment performance history, dependable and robust Information Technology systems, quality and professional personnel, excellent technical partners that empower them with a competitive advantage, and provides professional and dedicated client service.

Mr Ideva is an Alumni of London Business School, North-western University Chicago, Kellogg, Chicago Booth, Harvard University and IMD Business School, Lausanne, Switzerland.

He is immeasurably experienced in finance and administration and well-tested in the management of human and material resources having amassed over 34 years of experience in finance and general administrative duties in various sectors.

He was the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO) of Premium Pension Limited till December 2017 when he reached the company’s retirement age of fifty-five (55) years and beginning from 2018, he started his own company, High Street Consulting Ltd mainly to provide premium services for the pension industry where he spent over ten years as Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer in three different pension fund administration companies. A milestone yet to be achieved by any other person within the industry.

Under his outstanding leadership as the Managing Director of Premium Pension Limited, the organization emerged the winner at the 3rd BusinessToday Online, PENSION-COMPANY-OF-THE-YEAR AWARD, in 2015. While reacting to the award won by the company as the PENSION-COMPANY-OF-THE-YEAR, Mr Wilson Ideva, as the Managing Director/Chief Executive of Premium Pension Limited reiterated “There is need for increased public awareness of the workings, benefits and imperative of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) especially in the face of the current economic uncertainties”. “The CPS is the only sure way to guaranteeing your future.” Premium Pension Limited emerged as the winner.

Speaking on the awards, the MD/CEO of BusinessToday Online, Ms Nkechi Naeche said the award which is in its third edition seeks out exceptional individuals, companies and states that have been outstanding in advancing the insurance and Pension industries within a particular year. She said Premium Pension was picked from the votes cast by the public and other considerations made by the award’s panel of judges.

Ms Naeche noted that as stipulated in the voting rules that year, 80 per cent of the votes were assigned to the public while a panel of judges made of experts possessed 20 per cent of the voting rights.

She added that Premium Pension won 2015 awards following its efficient services to Nigerian retirees and their families, adding that the leading Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) provides an impressive range of Pension products and services to its client base across the length and breadth of the country. In August 2015, Premium Pension Limited was conferred with the Award for Mass Mobilization of Pension Asset, at the Commerce and Industry Awards by the Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry, LCCI.

Also in November 2015, Premium Pension Limited was bestowed with the UK’s International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Certificate on Information Security Management System by the British Standard Institute, becoming the first Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) in Nigeria to receive the certification.

In 2015 Premium Pension paid over N87 billion to retirees and next-of-kin of contributors under the Contributory Pension Scheme under its administration. The above figure was paid to a total of 33,000 retirees and relatives of deceased contributors in its portfolio between 2007 and 2015.

The company in 2015 upgraded the robust pension administration software, the Canadian Pension Administration Software (CPAS) to enhance its operations and have consistently posted Return on Investment on pension asset well above the industry average and above inflation.

The company was accorded with ‘Africa’s Most Innovative Pension Company of the Year 2016 Award’ by The African Quality Institute, publishers of the Quality Standard Magazine, in Abuja

“The rendition of pension schemes in Nigeria has been a tortuous journey; a history of ups and downs, and even near-total collapse before the advent of the CPS in 2004, with the enactment of the Pension Reform Act that year. “The CPS is a clear departure from the former Defined Benefit Scheme that proved unworkable and brought untold hardship to retirees in the country.”

Ideva pointed out that the airtight statutory provisions and the efficiency of the regulatory body, the National Pension Commission, had combined to guarantee quality as a watchword in the industry.

“But Premium Pension Limited has stood out with top-notch professionalism, qualitative customer-care orientation and cutting-edge technology among other attributes. We are well-positioned to weather whatever economic climate and primed to maximize the gains of the rapidly expanding pension market in the country,” he said.

During the World Pension Summit in 2016, Premium Pension won The Recognition of Excellence in Corporate Governance in Pension System

Before attaining the position of MD/CEO of premium pension Limited, Mr Ideva sailed through pivotal sectors of the economy in organizations such as First Guarantee Pension Limited, an organization he led successfully as the managing Director, growing its fund from N3.5 billion upon resuming office in 2007, to N32.2 billion as at November 2010. He was also an accountant with Ben Plastic Limited and the General Manager (Finance) of Petro-log Limited. He served as Finance and Management Consultant with Wilma and Associates, and a Finance Manager of Future Garments Limited Smethwick Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Mr Ideva’s vast experience in the private sector shows his commitment to building robust and credible institutions that offer first-class services while supporting the economy and national development. His training, nationally and internationally, has proven to complement his strengths in management and have made him one of the leading beacons of new-age professionalism in the evolving Pension Industry and beyond.

Mr Wilson Ideva attended Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi where he read Accountancy graduating in 1984 with upper Credit. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) in May 1986 receiving double merit awards. He is also a fellow of both the Nigerian Institute of Management (FNIM) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (FCA).

Mr Ideva with several years of experience within the pension industry, upwardly mobile and imbued with an exemplary commitment to professional excellence, Ideva is a multi-disciplinary and immensely talented technocrat and turn-around manager with a track record of good contributions to the growth and organizational changes in most places where he has worked.

It is no doubt that the belief in his ability to drive change as well as build organizations that meet the expectation of all Stakeholders has perpetually kept him upwardly mobile and bolstered his professional integrity.

Mr Ideva exudes a humble mien and believes ardently in hard work, equity and fairness. For him, these are the basic ingredients for the enhancement of the dignity of the human person in particular and the establishment of a virile and equitable society. He is happily married with children.

In an interview he granted to Punch Newspaper in 2016 he was asked what advice does he have for employers not yet part of the CPS?

“You could have the best office, the best machinery, but if you don’t have good human capital, everything you have put in place will not work. If you are an employer, one of the things you should be looking for is how to motivate your employees. How do you retain them and ensure that the people you have trained will not leave you?

One of the things you can do is to ensure that you have good pensions for them. An employee will be thinking that if he leaves the employment in about 10 or 20 years, what will happen to him? Am I going to be on the street begging for food? So, as an employer that wants to have a highly motivated workforce, one thing you should do is to ensure that you keep your employees under the CPS. In every organization, the loyalty of workers is very important. If you have a pension system, the tendency for people to commit fraud is largely reduced.”