PenCom to rework micro-pension scheme – DG

The Director-Normal of the Nationwide Pension Fee, Omolola Oloworaran, has revealed that the micro pension scheme could be remodelled to spice up participation.

Oloworaran mentioned this on Thursday on the 2024 PenCom Media Convention held in Lagos.

Micro pensions are particularly designed for people within the casual sectors.

She mentioned, “What we’re doing with a micro pension is treating it somewhat otherwise from how we have been doing it earlier than. As we all know, the micro pension doesn’t resonate with everybody throughout the casual sector, and a few operators have shared suggestions in regards to the gamers saying, ‘I’m not micro; I’m making tens of millions in a month, and also you need me to open a micro pension account.’ We need to rebrand the micro pension plan into a brand new one that may communicate to each sector of the financial system, together with people who find themselves on the backside of the social strata.

“What we need to do is rework the micro pension plan and let it communicate to people within the casual sector instantly, so whether or not you’re a farmer, designer, gatekeeper, and so forth., we will likely be assembly their wants with the merchandise that will likely be popping out, and I’m certain we can get extra folks in.”

She added that operators within the sector haven’t been pushing the micro pension scheme as desired.

“You’re proper, operators are usually not driving it. I can perceive the challenges that a few of them have highlighted. After we end revamping the scheme, I consider everybody will come on board to drive it. Along with rebranding, we’re additionally trying on the expertise that may work for us. The numbers we’re taking a look at are huge. Proper now, we now have over 10 million contributors below the CPS within the formal sector, however below the casual sector, we now have tens of tens of millions of individuals.

Primarily based on the final numbers I noticed, it was north of 70 million.

“If we will drive this micro pension, I anticipate us to go as much as 20 million Nigerians getting on the scheme, and the one manner we will do that’s with expertise. It’s lots of work we’re going to do on that and dealing with the operators in order that we will be certain that between now and subsequent 12 months, we now have extra contributors,” she mentioned.

Oloworaran, who was appointed the brand new Director-Normal of PenCom in July 2024, added that the fee was engaged on getting extra states to cultivate the contributory pension scheme.