The National Pension Commission and the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, have intensified the call to bring in more workers in the informal sector of the Nigerian economy into the country’s pension scheme.
The call was made on Thursday at the inaugural Pension Industry Leadership Retreat held in Lagos under the theme, ‘Sustainable Retirement – Strategic Blueprint for Economic Development and Inclusion.’
According to the Director-General of PenCom, Omolola Oloworaran, of the over 77 million informal sector workers, less than 10,000 of them are active contributors under the Contributory Pension Scheme.
To boost their contributions and the pension industry’s impact on the Nigerian economy, Oloworaran said that the regulator was not averse to reforms that would help it achieve its goals.
“PenCom is open for reforms. We’re working with stakeholders across industries to come up with reforms that can help us build the pension industry in terms of product penetration into the informal sector and even the formal sector. I’m aware that some media houses are not remitting pensions anyway, so that’s part of what we are working on. So we’re working on a lot of reforms on the product side, as well as strengthening compliance and holding all players accountable,” she stated.
On micro pension, Oloworaran said, “We need to rebrand. We need to rebrand the micro pension scheme and stop calling it micro, because apparently, some people don’t like that word. And I get it because micro means small, but what we want to appeal to is the informal sector.
“We still have a responsibility to ensure that every low-income earner gets boarded onto the CPS. But most importantly, we want the net to cover everybody, and that’s what we’re working on. We’ll rebrand. We would look for opportunities to incentivise the informal sector to participate in the pension scheme. I mean, we’re working on a lot of reforms.”
On his part, Sanwo-Olu, who was represented by the Commissioner for Finance, Abayomi Oluyomi, highlighted the benefits that the government has paid to its retirees over the years and called for the onboarding of informal sector workers.
Sanwo-Olu said, “In 2007, we established the Lagos State pension commission, and then enacted the Lagos State Pension Reform Law, launching our contributory pension scheme in 2009. Since then, Lagos has consistently met pension contributions, paying over N70.9bn to more than 20,000 retirees between May 2029 and April 2025.
“I think that is actually beyond financial security. We have prioritised retiree health insurance and streamlined pension processes to enhance transparency and efficiency. These efforts reflect our commitment, not only to finding our retirees, but also to ensuring that their dignity and well-being are well-catered for.
“However, our work is far from complete. Retirement security must extend beyond formal employment to include the informal sector, the market traders, the artisans, and the good economic workers who form the backbone of our economy. To achieve true economic inclusion, we must develop innovative pension solutions that are accessible, trustworthy, and sustainable for all Nigerians.”
