July 2026

Inclusive Pensions for an Aging World: Evidence and Strategies for Engaging Informal Workers

By Clément Joubert, Jessica Meckler, Simrin Makhija & Lili Vessereau This Working Paper reviews how different countries have designed pension schemes for informal workers. It focuses on contributory schemes for the “missing middle”: informal workers who have sufficiently stable incomes to save for old age but lack access to suitable pension options. The paper draws upon public documentation and literature on how to target and scale pension schemes for informal sector workers. The world is experiencing a demographic shift in which populations...

Extending Pension Coverage to the Informal Sector in Africa

By Melis Guven  The coverage of pension systems in the Africa region is limited to the small segment of the population in the formal sector. Coverage is thin partly because traditional contributory pension schemes are not responding to the needs of the informal sector. As a result, a large share of the region’s adult population has no access to contributory pension schemes during their working lives. This means they will not be eligible for a pension. It also means the...

China’s gig economy absorbs laid off workers and strains the social safety net

In Beijing, Bao Zhang started driving for a Chinese ride-hailing service this year after losing his job as a software tester, and says the weak labor market gives him little hope of returning to the IT sector. His story is becoming increasingly common in China, where millions are moving from official employment to the gig economy due to scant unemployment insurance, a record number of graduates, and a shortage of jobs that is squeezing employment opportunities. Those who previously used taxis...

June 2026

Nigeria. Over 92% of personal pension savings accounts remain unfunded

Amidst efforts by the National Pension Commission, PenCom, to include informal sector workers in the pension scheme, the Personal Pension Plan, PPP, which caters to the informal sector, has remained stagnant. While the PPP has 215,412 registered Retirement Savings Accounts, RSAs, only 17,320 of these RSAs, which represents 8.0 per cent, have received contributions. The remaining 198,092 RSAs, which represent 92.0 per cent, are dormant. PenCom, in its fourth quarter 2025 report stated that registrations are not savings and registration without funding...

How does private pension saving change for workers moving from employee jobs into self-employment?

By Jonathan Cribb & Laurence O'Brien Self-employed workers make up a significant part of the UK workforce, with over one-in-eight workers in self-employment. However, there are long-standing concerns about low levels of pension saving among this group: only 20% of working-age self-employed workers were saving in a private pension in 2022–23, compared with around 80% of employees (Department for Work and Pensions, 2025a). The trends in pension participation differ markedly between the two groups. In the late 1990s, almost 50%...

May 2026

Kenya’s 18.1 Million Informal Workers Hold The Future Of Pensions

Kenya created over 822,000 new jobs in 2025, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics Economic Survey 2026 released recently.  At first glance, this signals a resilient economy. But the composition of those jobs tells a more important story that reshape how we think about savings, pensions, and financial security. Over 87% of these jobs were created in the informal sector. Today, 83.8% of Kenya’s workforce, about 18.1 million people, earn their living outside formal employment. This is not...

Financial Stability Review 2025

By Financial Stability Council The Financial Stability Review evaluates developments in Ghana’s financial system, with emphasis on policies implemented to mitigate emerging risks to financial stability. This report is organised into eight (8) chapters: macro-financial developments, developments in Ghana’s financial system, assessment of the Banking, Insurance, Securities, and Pensions Industries, financial sector resilience, and a special features section that highlights topical issues of relevance to financial stability. In this current edition, two new sections have been introduced – key Financial...

Informality, Gender and Aging. Cumulative Inequalities and Intergenerational Effects

By Haut Comissariat Au Plan Since 2021, His Majesty King Mohammed VI’s High Guidance on social development has driven a structural project to extend social protection, focusing on the expansion of mandatory health coverage, the gradual integration of self-employed workers into pension schemes, and the introduction of universal family allowances. The New Development Model sets out this vision by establishing objectives in terms of decent employment, the economic inclusion of women, and intergenerational sustainability. The analysis presented in this report examines, in...

Ghana. Informal sector pension coverage rises to 16.7%

Pension coverage among informal sector workers in Ghana increased from 13.2 per cent in 2024 to 16.7 per cent in 2025, the Financial Stability Review 2025 has revealed. The Review attributed the increase to intensified public education campaigns, improved enrolment strategies, and the introduction of flexible pension products tailored to self-employed workers. The report said the growth formed part of broader reforms aimed at strengthening the sustainability of Ghana’s three-tier pension system and expanding access to retirement savings opportunities. It said the...

Zimbabwe. NSSA informal sector pension rollout targets 3 million

THE National Social Security Authority is on the verge of a historic reform, integrating over three million informal sector workers into Zimbabwe’s social security framework, a move that would rank among the country’s most significant protection rollouts in recent years The planned informal sector social security scheme targets vendors, cross-border traders, self-employed workers, small-scale traders and other workers currently excluded from formal pension systems. NSSA general manager Dr Charles Shava said the scheme was nearing completion as the authority moved to...