October 2025

Nigeria. ‘Financial literacy key to unlocking pension market’

Nigeria’s pension industry stakeholders have stressed the need for a renewed national focus on financial literacy as a major catalyst for deepening pension participation and unlocking the economic potential of the growing micro-pension market. Parthian Pensions Limited, one of the newly-licensed pension fund administrators (PFAs), said an improved understanding of the contributory pension system (CPS) is crucial to bringing millions of informal sector workers into the formal savings net and boosting long-term funds available for investment in the economy. Speaking at...

September 2025

Ghana. NPRA to roll out basic pensions education in schools

The National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) has announced plans to introduce basic pensions education at tertiary, secondary, and vocational institutions as part of efforts to enhance financial literacy and expand pension coverage in Ghana. During a courtesy call on the Minister of Education, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NPRA, Chris Boadi-Mensah, acknowledged the minister’s personal contributions to the growth of NPRA and the pensions industry during his tenure as Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, especially establishing NPRA’s Tamale...

May 2025

Does Education Improve Financial Outcomes? Evidence from Stock Market and Retirement Accounts in Türkiye

By Abdurrahman Aydemir & Yarsan Ersan We examine the causal effect of education on financial outcomes related to stock markets and retirement savings, leveraging a major compulsory school reform and a unique data set covering the universe of investors in Türkiye. The estimates show no effects on participation rates, portfolio composition, or return performance. Moreover, education does not appear to influence behavioral biases or heuristics in retirement plans. The reform leads to a 3% increase in pension savings for females,...

March 2025

Assessing the Permanent Income Hypothesis in Poor Areas: The Case of Rural Pensions in Brazil

By Bruno Kawaoka Komatsu, Lucas Dias & Naercio Menezes Filho In Brazil, poor women in family agriculture are entitled to a monthly unconditional pension from the government when they turn 55, a large predictable income increase for rural families. In this paper, we use a national family expenditure survey and a fuzzy regression discontinuity design strategy to estimate the impacts of that pension on consumption, finance and labor market indicators. We show that the rural pension increases income by 50%,...

October 2024

Ghana. Authority to educate on pensions in churches.

The National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) has marked what they call 'Pension Sunday'—a special day devoted to enlightening church congregations and the broader public about the significance of investing in their future through pension schemes. In recent years, the NPRA, the regulatory body overseeing Ghana's three-tier pension system, has significantly intensified its advocacy efforts, particularly targeting the informal sector. "Our goal is simple," stressed Mr. John Mbroh, Chief Executive Officer of the NPRA, "we want everyone, especially those in the informal...

June 2024

Early-Life Circumstances and Racial Disparities in Cognition for Older Americans: The Importance of Educational Quality and Experiences

By Zhuoer Lin, Justin Ye, Heather Allore, Thomas M. Gill & Xi Chen Given the critical role of neurocognitive development in early life, this study assesses how racial differences in early-life circumstances are collectively and individually associated with racial disparities in late-life cognition. Leveraging uniquely rich information on life history from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study for non-Hispanic White (White) and non-Hispanic Black (Black) Americans 50 years or older, we employ the Blinder-Oaxaca method to decompose racial gaps in...

March 2024

OECD/INFE 2023 International Survey of Adult Financial Literacy

By OECD Understanding current levels of financial literacy and needs is key for the effective development of financial literacy strategies and programmes. This report presents the results of an international survey of financial literacy levels among adults. A total of 39 countries and economies, of which 20 are OECD member countries, participated in this third coordinated measurement exercise using the globally recognized OECD/INFE 2022 Toolkit for Measuring Financial Literacy and Financial Inclusion to measure financial literacy levels among their adult...

The Lifelong Benefits of Improved Financial Literacy

By Annamaria Lusardi Annamaria Lusardi talked with Retirement Management Journal Editorial Advisory Board Members in June 2023 about benchmarking and assessing financial literacy, how it compares globally and why it matters, and providing financial education to improve retirement readiness. Source SSRN

January 2024

UK. Privately educated adults ‘more likely to have learned about pensions at school’

People who attended a private school are more likely to say they learned about pensions at school (20%) than those who were state-educated (6%), a survey has indicated. More than two-fifths (42%) of privately educated 35 to 44-year-olds said they reviewed or reassessed their pension pot at least once a year, compared with less than a fifth (17%) of state school-educated peers of the same age. Privately educated people were also more likely to hold private pensions outside of employment-linked pensions (40%),...

May 2023

Ghana. Ministry of Finance holds financial literacy workshop for businesses

The Ministry of Finance, in collaboration with the World Bank, Bank of Ghana, and other financial institutions has held a financial literacy training workshop for businesses in Tamale. The workshop, which was under the National Financial Education Campaign Programme, sought to strengthen citizens’ financial capabilities and promote responsible financial behaviours. It was attended by industry players in the financial sector including representatives of the Securities and Exchange Commission, National Pensions Regulatory Authority, National Insurance Commission, and the Ghana Microfinance Institutions Network. Mr...