2014年经济学人 尼日利亚的退休金计划 少消耗多储蓄

Pensions in Nigeria

Fewer ghosts, more savings¹

After an unpromising start,Nigeria is beginning to encourage local saving and investment

FEW people in Africa are fortunate enough to have savings to fall back on in their old age. Having enrolled² in a voluntary state-run pension scheme, Stephen Okikiola was always luckier than most. But it was not until Nigeria obliged firms with five or more employees to provide workers with pensions in 2004 that the former pharmaceuticals³ executive really started accumulating cash. “It's good to be able to rely on those monthly payments now that I am retired,” he says.

Nigeria has spent a decade resurrecting its pension system. Back at the turn of the century, government employees were enrolled in a defined-benefit system (in which eventual⁴ payments are fixed).It had run up unfunded liabilities of 2 trillion naira (12.9 billion).Governments seldom put aside enough money to pay existing pensioners⁵, let alone to cover future costs. Retirees often went unpaid⁶. Most private companies, meanwhile, ignored their obligation to provide pensions for their workers. At those that did, allegations of mismanagement and fraud abounded⁷.

All this changed with the reforms of 2004, which not only instituted mandatory⁸ pensions at most private firms, but also converted the government scheme from defined-benefit to defined-contribution (in which the risk of poor investment returns lies with the participants, not the sponsor). The management of the government scheme was also outsourced, and a regulator created to oversee⁹ the industry. Since 2005, pension schemes' assets have grown by more than 25% a year on average, to about 4.2 trillion naira (26 billion).

That is still a relatively¹⁰ small amount, especially when judged against the government's massively expanded estimate of the size of the Nigerian economy. In April it nearly doubled its tally¹¹ of GDP to 510 billion. That reduced pension-scheme assets to about 5% of GDP, compared to 170% in the Netherlands, 131% in Britain and 113% in America.

Moreover, the vast majority of Nigerians work in informal jobs, and so do not have a pension: of a working population of perhaps 80m people, only around 6m participate in any sort of scheme. The government is trying to rectify¹² that, too: a fresh set of reforms, passed in July, extended the obligation to provide a pension to firms employing three or more people. It also increased mandatory contributions from 7.5% of salary for both workers and employers to 8% and 10% respectively.

As a result, savings are expected to grow further. By law, all the money must be invested inNigeria. The intention is to build a big pool of local cash that will reduce the country's dependence¹³ on foreign aid, loans and investment. That goal has seemed all the more pressing since the prospect¹⁴ of rising interest rates in America caused an exodus¹⁵ of cash from emerging markets last year.

Nigeria's overwhelmed infrastructure¹⁶ needs billions of dollars a year in investment. Pension schemes looking for long-term, local investments to match their liabilities could fund desperately-needed roads, ports, railways and houses. PenCom, the national regulator, is trying to promote investments in electricity generation, perhaps via the government's huge privatisation programme. It also wants more forays into private equity¹⁷.

As things stand, however, pension funds are shunning¹⁸ alternative assets. Overall, infrastructure accounts for less than 2% of their assets, compared with 68% for government bonds and 13% for shares. That is partly because there are only two registered infrastructure funds inNigeriaand no dedicated¹⁹ infrastructure bonds, according to Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers,Nigeria's biggest pension-fund administrator²⁰.These are new and intimidating²¹ asset classes for local fund managers, says Kayode Akindele, of 46 Parallels, an investment manager.

Meanwhile, for the lucky few, life has improved. Former civil servants say they no longer have to queue for hours to collect their payments—the money goes straight to their accounts. And things have become more transparent²². “Ghost workers” used to account for a huge proportion of payments disbursed²³, according to Demola Sogunle, the boss of Stanbic. Those days, he says, are now over.

1 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

2 enrolled   

adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起

参考例句：

• They have been studying hard from the moment they enrolled. 从入学时起，他们就一直努力学习。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He enrolled with an employment agency for a teaching position. 他在职业介绍所登了记以谋求一个教师的职位。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 pharmaceuticals   

n.医药品；药物( pharmaceutical的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the development of new pharmaceuticals 新药的开发
• The companies are pouring trillions of yen into biotechnology research,especially for pharmaceuticals and new seeds. 这些公司将大量资金投入生物工艺学研究，尤其是药品和新种子方面。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 eventual   

adj.最后的，结局的，最终的

参考例句：

• Several schools face eventual closure.几所学校面临最终关闭。
• Both parties expressed optimism about an eventual solution.双方对问题的最终解决都表示乐观。

5 pensioners   

n.领取退休、养老金或抚恤金的人( pensioner的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He intends to redistribute income from the middle class to poorer paid employees and pensioners. 他意图把中产阶级到低薪雇员和退休人员的收入做重新分配。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I am myself one of the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. 我自己就是一个我们的高贵的施主遗留基金的养老金领取者。 来自辞典例句

6 unpaid   

adj.未付款的，无报酬的

参考例句：

• Doctors work excessive unpaid overtime.医生过度加班却无报酬。
• He's doing a month's unpaid work experience with an engineering firm.他正在一家工程公司无偿工作一个月以获得工作经验。

7 abounded   

v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Get-rich-quick schemes abounded, and many people lost their savings. “生财之道”遍地皆是，然而许多人一生积攒下来的钱转眼之间付之东流。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• Shoppers thronged the sidewalks. Olivedrab and navy-blue uniforms abounded. 人行道上逛商店的人摩肩接踵，身着草绿色和海军蓝军装的军人比比皆是。 来自辞典例句

8 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

9 oversee   

vt.监督，管理

参考例句：

• Soldiers oversee the food handouts.士兵们看管着救济食品。
• Use a surveyor or architect to oversee and inspect the different stages of the work.请一位房产检视员或建筑师来监督并检查不同阶段的工作。

10 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

11 tally   

n.计数器，记分，一致，测量；vt.计算，记录，使一致；vi.计算，记分，一致

参考例句：

• Don't forget to keep a careful tally of what you spend.别忘了仔细记下你的开支账目。
• The facts mentioned in the report tally to every detail.报告中所提到的事实都丝毫不差。

12 rectify   

v.订正，矫正，改正

参考例句：

• The matter will rectify itself in a few days.那件事过几天就会变好。
• You can rectify this fault if you insert a slash.插人一条斜线便可以纠正此错误。

13 dependence   

n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属

参考例句：

• Doctors keep trying to break her dependence of the drug.医生们尽力使她戒除毒瘾。
• He was freed from financial dependence on his parents.他在经济上摆脱了对父母的依赖。

14 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。

15 exodus   

v.大批离去，成群外出

参考例句：

• The medical system is facing collapse because of an exodus of doctors.由于医生大批离去，医疗系统面临崩溃。
• Man's great challenge at this moment is to prevent his exodus from this planet.人在当前所遇到的最大挑战，就是要防止人从这个星球上消失。

16 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

17 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。

18 shunning   

v.避开，回避，避免( shun的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• My flight was more a shunning of external and internal dangers. 我的出走是要避开各种外在的和内在的威胁。 来自辞典例句
• That book Yeh-yeh gave me-"On Filial Piety and the Shunning of Lewdness"-was still on the table. 我坐下来，祖父给我的那本《刘芷唐先生教孝戒淫浅训》还在桌子上。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

19 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

20 administrator   

n.经营管理者，行政官员

参考例句：

• The role of administrator absorbed much of Ben's energy.行政职务耗掉本很多精力。
• He has proved himself capable as administrator.他表现出管理才能。

21 intimidating   

vt.恐吓，威胁( intimidate的现在分词)

参考例句：

• They were accused of intimidating people into voting for them. 他们被控胁迫选民投他们的票。
• This kind of questioning can be very intimidating to children. 这种问话的方式可能让孩子们非常害怕。

22 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

23 disbursed   

v.支出，付出( disburse的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• In the 2000—2008 school year, $426.5 million was disbursed to 349085 students. 2000至2008学年，共有349085名学生获发津贴，总额达4.265亿元。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The bank has disbursed over $350m for the project. 银行已经为这个项目支付了超过3.5亿美元。 来自辞典例句