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Pensions in Nigeria
尼日利亞的退休金計劃
Fewer ghosts, more savings
少消耗 多儲蓄
After an unpromising start,Nigeria is beginning to encourage local saving and investment
在一個不靠譜的開端之后，尼日利亞開始鼓勵當地的儲蓄和投資。
FEW people in Africa are fortunate enough to have savings to fall back on in their old age. Having enrolled 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 pharmaceuticals executive really started accumulating cash. “It's good to be able to rely on those monthly payments now that I am retired,” he says.
在非洲，很少有人有足夠的資金去做養老儲蓄。Stephen Okikiola比大多數人幸運，因為他參加了國營的自發退休金計劃。但是直到2004年尼日利亞迫使企業的五個或以上的雇員給給工人提供退休金，前制藥公司的執行官們才真正地開始進行了存儲。他說：“我已經退休了，能依賴于那些每月的支付是很不錯的。”
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 eventual 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 pensioners, let alone to cover future costs. Retirees often went unpaid. Most private companies, meanwhile, ignored their obligation to provide pensions for their workers. At those that did, allegations of mismanagement and fraud abounded.
尼日利亞花了十多年去恢復他們的退休金制度?；仡櫛臼兰o初，政府雇員參加的是固定退休金制度（即期末薪金是固定的）。這加劇了高達2萬億奈拉養老金缺口（129億美元）。政府很少給現有的退休人員準備充足的養老資金，更不用說承擔未來成本。退休人員通常領不到退休金，而且大多數私人公司也不顧他們給職工提供養老金的責任。所有這些事情中充滿了對管理不善的推諉和欺騙。
All this changed with the reforms of 2004, which not only instituted mandatory 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 oversee 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).
這些都在2004年的改革中發生了變化。他們給私人企業制定了強制養老保險計劃，同時將政府的固定退休金制改為固定繳款制（低投資回報的風險由受益人承擔，而不是發起人）。這種政府制度的管理是外包的，是產業監督的一個校準器。自從2005年起，退休金制度一年的資產平均增長率超過了25%，達到了4.2萬億奈拉（260億美元）。
That is still a relatively 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 tally 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.
這仍舊是一筆相當少的數目，尤其是與政府對尼日利亞經濟的大量樂觀預期相比時。GDP在四月幾乎翻番為5100億美元。這將退休金制度的在GDP中的占比減低至5%，而在荷蘭占比170%，英國占比131%，美國為113%。
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 rectify 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.
此外，數量龐大的尼日利亞人從事于不能領取退休金的非正式工作：大約8000萬的勞動力人口中只有6000萬左右的人參加了這個計劃。政府正在試圖改變這種情況。在7月通過的一系列改革中，擴大了提供退休金的義務為每個公司要雇傭三人及以上。這同樣使強制性供款增加，工人從工資的7.5%增加至8%，雇員至10%。
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 dependence on foreign aid, loans and investment. That goal has seemed all the more pressing since the prospect of rising interest rates in America caused an exodus of cash from emerging markets last year.
因此，可以預計未來儲蓄會增長。根據法律，所有的款項將投資于尼日利亞本國，以期建造一個本幣現金池以降低國家對外國的援助、貸款及投資的依存度。似乎這個目標自從美國利率的上升預期導致新興市場中的大量現金外流之后就非常迫切了。
Nigeria's overwhelmed infrastructure 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 equity.
尼日利亞過多的基礎設施需要一年幾百萬美元的投入。退休金計劃尋求長期的、本地的投資去應對他們在公路、港口、鐵路和住宅方面的緊迫需求。PenCom是一個本國監管機構試圖通過政府的宏大的私有化計劃促進發電方面的投資，同時也希望削弱私人股本。
As things stand, however, pension funds are shunning 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 dedicated infrastructure bonds, according to Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers,Nigeria's biggest pension-fund administrator.These are new and intimidating asset classes for local fund managers, says Kayode Akindele, of 46 Parallels, an investment manager.
然而照目前的情況來看，退休金計劃回避了資產的其他選擇?？偟膩碚f，相比于68%的政府公債和13%的股份，基礎設施的占比低于資產的2%。一部分原因是因為根據尼日利亞最大的養老基金管理機構Stanbic IBTC的養老基金管理，尼日利亞只有兩個基礎設施基金，且并不致力于基礎設施融資。投資經理Kayode Akindele以及46個同行稱，這是給本土基金經理上的最新令人畏懼的資產課程。
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 transparent. “Ghost workers” used to account for a huge proportion of payments disbursed, according to Demola Sogunle, the boss of Stanbic. Those days, he says, are now over.
同時，對于少數幸運者來說，生活質量提高了。前公務員說工資直接會打到他們的賬戶中，不再需要排幾個小時的長隊去領了。同時事情也變得更有效率了，Stanbic的總裁Demola Sogunle稱，曾經絕大一部分支付的工資流向了“影子工人”，而現在這種情況已經一去不復返了。譯者：李美娜
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