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The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has intensified efforts to expand pension coverage to Nigeria’s vast informal workforce, as its Director-General, Omolola Oloworaran, reaffirmed that the redesigned Personal Pension Plan (PPP) is central to closing the nation’s widening retirement security gap.
Speaking in Abuja at the Annual Conference of the Pension Correspondents Association of Nigeria, Oloworaran—represented by PenCom’s Head of Corporate Communications, Ibrahim Buwai—said the revamped PPP was introduced to address long-standing barriers that limited subscription under the Micro Pension Plan launched in 2019.
According to her, the level of retirement exclusion in the informal sector is a national vulnerability, with an estimated 70 to 80 million Nigerians working outside any structured pension arrangement.
She noted that participation in the earlier micro-pension scheme remained “far below required scale,” attracting only 200,000 contributors and generating assets of about $1bn, despite the size of the informal economy.
“Artisans, traders, gig workers, freelancers and market operators sustain Nigeria’s daily economic activity, yet most lack access to formal pension protection,” she said. “For far too long, these workers have had little or no access to structured retirement savings.”
A More Flexible, Digitised Pension Model
The Director-General explained that the redesigned Personal Pension Plan is built for workers with irregular incomes. The scheme:
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Allows entry from age 18
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Supports flexible, digital contributions across multiple channels
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Splits contributions into an emergency savings portion and a long-term retirement portion
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Offers instant contribution acknowledgement and real-time account access
She added that Pension Fund Administrators and Accredited Pension Agents will deploy mobile-friendly onboarding tools to simplify registration and rebuild trust.
Oloworaran said contributions under the PPP would be invested through dedicated, conservative and growth-oriented structures tailored to contributors’ risk preferences. She emphasised that the initiative is a pillar of PenCom’s Pension Revolution 2.0, aimed at promoting financial inclusion, mobilising long-term domestic capital and securing dignified retirement outcomes for millions of excluded workers.
She further appealed to journalists to support the campaign through simplified public education, assuring informal workers that long-term financial security is attainable under the PPP.
Sector Operators Back the Reform
The Acting CEO of the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria, Ms. Anthonia Ifeanyi-Okoro, said closing Nigeria’s pension gap had become a social and economic imperative.
Describing pensions as “a social contract that transforms decades of labour into dignity and independence,” she noted that the PPP offers a practical pathway to inclusion, particularly for artisans, gig workers, farmers, traders and micro-entrepreneurs who were previously beyond the reach of the Contributory Pension Scheme.
She said the plan’s flexibility, technology integration and consumer-centric design would “turn millions of informal workers from pension outsiders into pension participants,” adding that broadening coverage is an investment in national stability and long-term growth.
Media Advocates Call for Accessible Pension Education
President of the Pension Correspondents Association of Nigeria, Nana Musa, underscored the urgency of pension inclusion, noting that over 80% of Nigeria’s workforce operates in the informal sector without formal social protection.
She said the annual conference was convened to strengthen dialogue among regulators, operators, labour groups, policymakers and the media on strategies to boost adoption through trust-building, awareness creation and technology-driven enrolment.
While commending PenCom for ongoing reforms under the PPP, she stressed that significant work remains in deepening public understanding and simplifying access.
Participation and Assets on the Rise
Recent data from PenCom shows rising interest in the scheme. The Personal Pension Plan’s assets grew from N185.18m in 2021 to N1.58bn as of August 2025, with steady growth recorded annually—N313.46m (2022), N560.06m (2023), and N968.27m (2024)—before surpassing the N1bn mark in 2025.
PenCom recently rebranded the Micro Pension Plan as the Personal Pension Plan to expand coverage in the informal sector and boost voluntary contributions from formal employees.
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