Micro Pension: PFAs Register 28,000 Participants
L-R: Susan Oroanye, Executive Secretary, Pension Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp); Peter Aghahowa, Head, Corporate Communications, National Pension Commission of NIgeria (PenCom); Aderonke Adedeji, President (PenOP); Bayo Yusuf, Managing Director, UBA Pension and Wole Odutola, Head, Branding and Communications (PenOp) in a group photograph at the 2019 PenOp’s Annual Media Partners Seminar in Lagos on Friday, November 1, 2019.
National Pension Commission Pension (PenCom) said as at October this year, about 28,000 participants have registered for Micro Pension Plan (MPP) with Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs).
The Commission’s Head, Corporate Communications, Peter Aghahowa, said this at the weekend during the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp) 2019 media interactive seminar in Lagos.
While highlighting pension activities in Nigeria, Aghahowa said up till June 2019, 21,430 participants were registered, in July 2019, 221 participants were registered, in August 2019, 1,299 Nigerians were registered, in September 2019, 2737 participants were registered and in October 2019, 2313 participants were registered.
He said the micro pension plan is targeted to capture over 40 million Nigerians in the formal sector with have no pension plan, which he said accounted for about 65 per cent of the GDP
Aghahowa said although registration has however been challenged due to low financial literacy, because a lot of Nigerians at the low income level still do not understand the benefits of pension and as such often mistake the scheme as scam that the Commission is collaborating with relevant sectors to tackle the situation.
Other challenges highlighted by the head of communication, are low National Identity Number (NIN), which is one of the criteria for registration; low awareness about the scheme and inadequate technology platform to support the registration process.
To tackle these challenges, PenCom spokesman said the commission has embarked on a campaign across the traditional, social and digital media, engaging with union, associations, professional bodies and Non Governmental Organizations.
“Though NIN has slowed down the process of micro pension registration, PenCom has however collaborated with the DescriptionNational Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to ensure that participants get their numbers on time to fast track registration.
“The commission is working on having its own USSD code to ease payment of pension contribution for enrollees,” he added.
On Contributory Pension Scheme, He said the commission is working tirelessly to get more states to embrace the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), stressing that states more states are working hard to join the scheme.
He posited that the Federal Government had paid accrued pension rights up to September 2018, adding that the Commission is engaging the relevant parties to ensure that the backlog is cleared.
Aghahowa said the problem on the backlog of accrued pension right has to do with paucity of funds, adding once funds are made available regularly in the budget both in the federal and at states level for pension, the issue will be cleared.
Speaking on the growth of the industry, President, PenOp, Aderonke Adedeji, said though the micro pension scheme is moving at a slow pace, there is need to give it time, to avoid mistakes.
Adedeji said since 15 years of setting up the contributory pension scheme, it has grown to N9.7 trillion.
“We are not yet where we want to be. We need to address the issue of transfer window and the slow registration of NIN, but we are making progress in that aspect.
“In recent time we have been experiencing slow pace of growth of the industry and the reason is not farfetched.
“In terms of the state of the Nigerian economy, we have increase in unemployment rate which is a threat to the growth of the industry,” she added.
She said the solid structure that the industry has put in place has continued to yield results despite the challenges facing the Nigerian economy.
The micro pension plan was launched in March 28, 2019 by President Muhammadu Buhari.
