Africa

ANGOLA - The Angolan government has announced it will pay US$50m into the national pension fund for war veterans over the next two years.

SOUTH AFRICA/UK - Alexander Forbes shrugged off the recent bulking scandal to grow its global assets under management to ZAR135bn (US$18.7bn) for the six months ended 30 September, well above the ZAR107bn reported in the same period last year.

SOUTH AFRICA - Specific reforms of South African pension fund legislation are to be implemented "without further delay," the National Treasury of South Africa announced.

SOUTH AFRICA - A consortium of investors including the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan (OTPP) and Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec have made a ZAR8.3bn (US$1.1bn) offer for Alexander Forbes.

NIGERIA - The Nigerian government has set aside as much as NGN80bn (US$6.2bn) for its pension system as part of its 2007 budget proposals.

NIGERIA - Pension fund administrators have called on the National Pensions Commission to launch an awareness campaign on pensions because a large number of the population are still unaware of the changes the 2004 reform brought about.

SOUTH AFRICA - The C$96bn Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) was among the nine failed bidders for the V&A waterfront, a prime section of real estate situated in Cape Town.

SOUTH AFRICA - The Financial Services Board (FSB) has confirmed at least two more arrests would be made this week in the high-profile pension fraud case involving businessman Peter Ghavalas.

NIGERIA - The National Union of Pensioners (NUP) has demanded the current government pay out all outstanding pensions before handing power over to the next administration in May 2007.

SOUTH AFRICA - The Financial Services Board (FSB) has confirmed that the imminent pension reform will iron out any ambiguities regarding the legality, or lack thereof, within the practice of bulking by pension fund administrators.