Analysts: “Diversified investments keep NASSIT financially sound”

The strategic move by NASSIT over the last twenty-five years to diversify its investments into real estate, banking, hospitality, infrastructure and mortgage finance has been very crucial to the long-term viability of the institution. Finance experts believe that purposeful diversification has reduced the risk and has yielded reliable returns in the long term, which protects both contributors and the pensioners. NASSIT has built a diverse portfolio over the last 25 years, enabling it to develop a strong mandatory pension scheme that provides financial protection to workers and their families against the three main contingencies covered by the social security system: retirement, injury, and death. Pensioners continue to be paid their monthly entitlements without a problem, showing that the Trust is in a position to meet its statutory obligations on an ongoing basis. The yardstick for a social security fund, analysts say, is not the short-term performance of every asset but the institution’s ability to protect the savings of contributors, meet pension liabilities and sustain long-term growth. By those criteria, NASSIT has performed well. Experts also say swings are normal in diversified portfolios; setbacks to individual assets are to be expected periodically and usually dealt with by continued diversification, sound financial governance and active portfolio management. An insider privy to the Trust’s strategy told The Gleaner Newspaper that NASSIT’s portfolio was designed to have two objectives, which are to generate returns and to contribute to the socioeconomic development of Sierra Leone. The institution’s investments have helped create and retain tens of thousands of jobs, stimulating private sector activity and strengthening key industries that support national growth. The wider economic contributions add value to the investment approach of NASSIT, say observers. According to industry experts, there is no need for alarm among the public regarding the financial position of NASSIT, as pension payments are still being made as planned and most of its assets are still productive and strategically significant. They are urging the public and stakeholders to look beyond short-term concerns affecting individual investments and to consider the health of the portfolio as a whole, the Trust’s ability to meet its obligations in the long term and its continued role in promoting the economic stability of Sierra Leone. The message to thousands of contributors and beneficiaries across the country is clear: NASSIT remains financially strong, members’ funds are safe, pension payments are being made as scheduled, and the Trust’s diversified investment strategy remains one of Sierra Leone’s more enduring institutional successes.****