Micro Pension: PenCom Moves To Tackle Low Penetration Through, Collaboration, Engagements

In a move to tackle the tide of low enrolment into the Micro Pension Plan and increase pen­etration, the National Pension Commission (PenCom) has forged collaboration with oth­er sister agencies including the Federal Ministry of Special Du­ties and Intergovernmental Af­fairs (FMSDIGA) to strategise on how to penetrate the grass­roots through collaboration.

In a meeting between the PenCom and the FMSDIGA led by Mr Saleem Mohammed, Di­rector, Surveillance at PenCom in Abuja, the leadership of Pen­Com sought for collaboration in the expansion of the Micro Pension Scheme to Nigeria’s vast informal sector workforce.

In his address, Saleem em­phasize the Commission’s re­solve to extend pension bene­fits to artisans, traders, tailors, mechanics, and other informal sector workers who form the majority of Nigeria’s work­force.

According to Dr. Babatunde Alayande, Head of Micro Pen­sion Department at Pencom, the informal sector accounts for over 78million Nigerians representing 94percent of the country’s labour fòrce citi g the National Bureau of Statistics report (NBS) for 2024.

Dr Alayande lamented that since the launch of the scheme on March 28, 2019, only 200,000 informal workers have regis­tered nationwide and merely 12,000 of them actively contrib­ute towards their retirement savings.

He stressed the urgent need to drive awareness and confi­dence among the underserved group by reaching them through local associations, trade unions, and community networks at the 774 local gov­ernment areas across the 36 states a the FCT.

In response, the permanent secretary of the ministry, Dr Onwusoro Maduka Ihemelan­du, expressed the Ministry will­ingness to collaborate on this national assignment.

He directed that technical committee be immediately constituted to engage relevant stakeholders including AL­GON, trade unions, and other grassroots association.

He emphasised the impor­tance of sensitization and trust building to assure participants that their savings are safe, se­cure and accessible when need­ed.

The collaboration aims to bridge the pension gap between the formal and informal sectors and ensure financial dignity for all Nigerians in retirement.