“Only 7.45% of Nigeria’s Workforce Under Contributory Pension” – PenCom

The National Pension Commission, PenCom, has stated that only about 7.45 percent or 7.01 million of total labour force in Nigeria, representing 3.95 percent of total population, has registered under the contributory pension scheme, CPS, introduced in the country in 2004.

Director General of PenCom, Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, who spoke at a roundtable to commemorate this year’s May Day celebrations in Abuja, she said 26 out of 36 states have adopted the scheme and are at different stages of implementation while the remaining 10 states are at bill stage.

The PenCom DG also highlighted that average monthly contributions of Nigerian workers into the CPS rose to N25 billion as at end March 2016 with total pension assets under the scheme standing at N5.39 trillion.

Anohu-Amazu disclosed that current pension assets is equivalent to 7.72 percent of the country’s rebased GDP figures, adding that about 60 percent of the assets are from the private sector.

She noted that about 200,000 private sector employers of labour are implementing the CPS while over 162,343 workers had retired under the scheme as at March 2016 and are currently receiving pensions as and when due.

Anohu-Amazu, represented by PenCom’s Head, Research and Strategy Management, Dr. Farouk Umar, said that the CPS in its over ten years of operation in Nigeria had recorded the highest growth of 17 percent in the year 2013, followed by 2012 when pension asset growth rate stood at 14 percent.

Giving an update of activities in the public sector pension, the PenCom boss said the Pension Transition Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) was fully established to handle issues of Federal Government retirees exempted from the CPS.

She said there were 220,376 pensioners on payroll under the four departments of PTAD with a monthly pension of N6.4 billion as at January 2016.