PenCom Taking Steps To Encourage More Participation In Micro Pension Plan

L-R:Oladimeji Ishola, Stakeholders Unit, South West Zonal Office of PenCom;  Ibrahim Kangiwa (Head, Investment Supervision Department, PenCom and Obiora Ibeziako, Head, Benefits and Insurance Department, PenCom, at the 2022 workshop organized by Pencom for Journalists in Lagos.

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) is taking strategic steps to encourage informal sector workers’ participation in the Micro Pension Plan (MPP) in Nigeria.

The Director General, PenCom, Aisha Dahir-Umar, said this in her opening remarks at the 2022 workshop organized by the Commission for journalists in Lagos yesterday.

The DG who was ably represented by the Head of Corporate Communication of the Commission, Abdulqadir Dahiru, said the Commission’s strategic efforts is to drive Micro Pension Plan.

According to her, Strategic efforts to drive the Micro Pension Plan (MPP) remain one of the significant areas of focus of the Commission.

Apart of increased awareness on the benefits of the Micro Pension Plan, the Commission, she said, in collaboration with the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria, is currently championing an Industry Media Campaign in major cities in the country’s six geopolitical zones.

In his presentation at the workshop titled “The Micro Pension Plan: Bringing Financial Security at Old Age to the Doorsteps of the Informal Sector,” Dauda Ahmed, Head, Micro Pensions listed other steps being taken by the commission to encourage informal sector participation in the plan to include product design; ease of entry; flexibility around contribution remittances; withdrawals for emergencies; provision of incentives – financial or otherwise e.g. subsidized health insurance, group life insurance schemes, etc.

Other are media campaign to increase awareness of the Plan; engagement with key stakeholders to secure buy-in of MPP and adoption of shared services technology platforms to improve service delivery and reduce costs.

Micro Pension Plan was conceptualized to expand pension coverage to the informal sector, including small-scale businesses, entertainers, professionals, petty traders, artisans, and entrepreneurs and implemented to curb old-age poverty by assisting the workers to contribute while working and build long-term savings to fall back on when they become old.

The PenCom boss said the theme of the workshop “Increasing Informal Sector Participation in the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS): The case for Micro Pension Plan” aligns with the Commission’s objective of expanding coverage of the CPS.

The objective, she noted, is to bring Nigerians working in the Informal Sector and those who are Self Employed into CPS through the Micro Pension Plan (MPP).