By Ngozi Onyeakusi—Nigeria’s former President Olusegun Obasanjo stated that he was pleasantly surprised at the growth of the pension assets over the last 20 years. He mentioned that when his administration instituted the pension reforms and pushed to have a bill to reform the way pension administration were done in Nigeria, they did not think that the assets will grow this quickly and have the positive effect it has had so far. He stated this in a recent interview with the Chief Executive of the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp), Oguche Agudah. The interview was held as part of events to mark twenty years of pension reforms in Nigeria.

Going down memory lane, President Obasanjo said that one of the major reasons for the reform was his pain at seeing so many pensioners queuing up to collect their pensions during his first term in office, especially military men who had served the Nation. With this in mind, he resolved to see how the government could make pension management and administration private sector driven and more in line with global best practices.

When asked about why they chose Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) for Nigeria, He said “it’s simple, we just see what other countries are doing and if it’s good for us we copy it and adapt. There is no harm in copying if we see what other countries are doing and it’s good for them, we adapt”. In addition, he said what the pension industry needs to do now is to see how the pension assets that have been saved over the years can help more in national development, especially infrastructure investments in a safe and sustainable manner that does not jeopardize people’s pensions.

President Obasanjo was speaking as part of the activities to mark twenty years of pension reforms in Nigeria. The year 2024 marks 20 years since the initial pension reform act was signed. The Pension reform Act was the bedrock of a cross cutting committee that worked on pension reforms in Nigeria which culminated in the drafting and enactment of the pension reform act which essentially professionalized pensions management in Nigeria, moved the  management to the private sector and helped to wean the government from unsustainable pension liabilities.