R-L: Sunmisola Mark-Okoma, Pal Pension; the Executive Secretary, PenOp, Sussan Oranye, the Head Corporate Communication PenCom, Peter Aghaho,; MD ARM Pension Wale Odutola; MD Diamond PFC, Chinedu Ekeoha at the 2018 Media Retreat organized by PenOp for Pension Correspondents in Lagos

 

 

 

 

The Federal Government has approved the Micro Pension guidelines, thus operation of this aspect of pension will commence January, next year.

Pension industry is expected to rake in N3 trillion into the Pension Assets.
Speaking at the 2018 Media Retreat organized by Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria(PenOp) for Pension Correspondents in Lagos, the Head, Research & Corporate Strategy, National Pension Communication (PenCom, Dr. Farouk Aminu, said, the approval, was communicated to the commission through the Secretary General of Federation(SGF) on Wednesday.

According to him, the commission is working on ensuring that the scheme commence in January, 2018, noting that this is a development that could enhance the growth of pension assets in the country.
He stressed that the micro pension plan is a scheme meant to capture people in the informal sector of the economy and expand the outreach of the new pension scheme.
Similarly, the Executive Secretary, PenOp, Ms. Susan Oranye, said though the pension funds has grown to N8.2 trillion and the number of contributors has risen to about 8 million, the huge population of 160 million shows a lot of potential exist in the pension industry.
The micro pension scheme, she said, will explore the potentials in the pension industry by persuading players in the informal sector to join the Contributory Pension Scheme(CPS) through the micro pension plan. When more people subscribe to the plan, she said, it will increase the pension assets, hence, allowing pension fund operators to invest more funds for economic growth and development.
However, the Head, Corporate Communications, PenCom, Mr. Peter Aghahowa, said, the micro pension scheme is made flexible for people to easily join, while the method of contribution is decided by the contributors, who are to chose whether to contribute daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and so on.
Moreover, he said, anybody who is 16 years and above is eligible to join this scheme.
He stressed that the regulator and operators are jointly working on the I.T infrastructure to ensure a seamless operation of the plan.
PenCom, had earlier said, the scheme, if it finally takes off, has the potential to generate about N3 trillion to the pension assets, while it intends to mobilise about 12 million contributors within five years.
Micro Pension plan, according to PenCom, is expected to capture self-employed people, especially those with irregular income, usually in the informal sector and are largely financially uninformed with limited or no access to financial services especially pension plan.
Section 2(3) of the Pension Reform Act, 2014 legal framework extends the coverage of the Contributory Pension Scheme to self-employed persons through micro pension scheme.