12,241 casual sector RSA holders save N967m – PenCom

The Nationwide Pension Fee has revealed that 12,241 Retirement Financial savings Account holders from the casual sector have contributed about N967.19m between 2020 and the third quarter of 2024 below the Micro Pension Plan.

This was disclosed in its newly launched Pension Trade Efficiency Dashboard, which gives a complete, user-friendly overview of historic important pension statistics.

The Pension Reform Act 2014 expanded protection of the Contributory Pension Scheme to the self-employed and individuals working in organisations with lower than three workers. The Micro Pension Plan was launched in 2019 to offer retirement financial savings for individuals.

working within the casual sector.

In response to a latest research by Jobberman Nigeria in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, the casual sector accounted for 76.7 per cent of employed Nigerians, highlighting the important significance of the sector to Nigeria’s economic system.

The PenCom dashboard revealed that since inception to Q3 2024, the whole micro pension registration rely stood at 164,031.

“Particularly, the variety of casual sector employees with funded RSAs was 12,241. From 2020 to Q3 2024, the variety of funded RSA registrations elevated by 5,971, and the whole quantity saved within the RSAs of Micro Pension Individuals was N967.19m as of Q3 2024, which represented a development of N878.07m from the 2020 determine of N89.13m,” a part of the dashboard learn.

The dashboard additional offered a breakdown of the MicroPension Plan RSA rely within the final 5 years, which grew from 6,270 in 2020 to eight,260 in 2021, 8,807 in 2022, and eight,950 in 2023 earlier than the 36.77 per cent rise it witnessed in 2024, indicating extra efforts had been exerted to usher in extra of the casual sector into the CPS.

Equally, contributions into the funded MPP RSAs had grown steadily over the past 5 years.

In 2020, the contributions had been valued at N89.13m; in 2021, it rose to N224.05m; an extra enhance was recorded in 2022 to N368.03m, and it almost doubled to N680.16m in 2023 earlier than shifting nearer to the N1bn mark at Q3, 2024, when it stood at N967.19m.

At a workshop for journalists in December 2024 in Lagos, the Director-Common of the Nationwide Pension Fee, Omolola Oloworaran, revealed that the micro pension scheme can be remodelled to spice up participation.

She mentioned, “What we’re doing with a micro pension is treating it a bit of in another way from how we had 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 concerning the gamers saying, ‘I’m not micro; I’m making thousands and thousands in a month, and also you need me to open a micro pension account.’ We wish to rebrand the micro pension plan into a brand new one that may converse to each sector of the economic system, together with people who find themselves on the backside of the social strata.

“What we wish to do is transform the micro pension plan and let it converse to people within the casual sector instantly, so whether or not you’re a farmer, dressmaker, gatekeeper, and so on., we will probably be assembly their wants with the merchandise that will probably be popping out, and I’m certain we can get extra individuals in.”

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

He mentioned, “Operators usually are not driving it. I can perceive the challenges that a few of them have highlighted. Once we end revamping the scheme, I consider everybody will come on board to drive it. Along with rebranding, we’re additionally wanting on the know-how that may work for us. The numbers we’re are monumental. 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 thousands and thousands of individuals.

“Primarily based on the final numbers I noticed, it was north of 70 million. If we are able to drive this micro pension, I anticipate us to rise up to twenty million Nigerians getting on the scheme, and the one means we are able to do that’s with know-how. It’s a variety of work we’re going to do on that and dealing with the operators in order that we are able to be certain that between now and subsequent 12 months, we now have extra contributors.”