Still, there is a lot to be thankful for. And so, in our special version of ’12 days of Christmas’, we’ll remind you – with the Good News only – of the reasons why things have not all been bad so far.

Without further ado:

2016 sent to us:

PENCOM getting it right;

Wizkid’s international status;

Ayodele Dada;

The Number 1 best female football team in Africa;

While everything else shut down, PENCOM kept giving us life

For a sector that had somehow become synonymous with scandals, notable amongst which is the Police Pensions scandal, the National Pension Commission, PENCOM has been nothing short of amazing this year.

Under the leadership of Dr. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, the pension funds in Nigeria have grown to at least o NGN5.74 trillion in 2016, accounting for at least 6 percent of the country’s GDP as at September and the pensioners have not once complained about not getting paid monthly.

Having grown its funds to such extent, on the 30th August, PENCOM announced that it planned to deploy at least 40 per cent of the total pension funds in the country (about NGN2.32 trillion) into investments in infrastructure development by 2019. They have also been very careful about investing said funds as Director General, Dr. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu said no to investments in real estate which she noted is “traditionally complex; adding that “when you need to get your fund out, real estate may not be easily disposable”.

So pensioners are not only getting their payment regularly, through PENCOM’s good thinking, they may even be helping out the economy through infrastructural developments soon.