November 2019

Nigeria. Micro pension: Gaining traction amid challenges

While the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) has been fully established and to a large extent taken care of workers in the formal sector including public and private establishments, the micro-pension plan for the informal sector came on-board fully this year with a major launch by the Federal Government. Read also Poland Approves Plans to Overhaul Pension System The scheme, which went through the usual teething problem associated with every new programme, has, however, appeared to be taking shape...

August 2019

3 challenges to getting Nigeria ready for retirement

Nigeria, like the rest of the world, is getting ready for retirement at a pace that might not meet the need of the future. In monetary term, the World Economic Forum (WEF) puts the likely gap between the outcome of global efforts at funding retirement and reality of retirement needs at $400 trillion by 2020. This shows that retirement realities may outweigh retirement preparations and expose elderly persons to financial insecurity in future. Chief Executive Officer of Principal Financial...

Nigeria. Ibadan to host first pensioners’ radio in Africa

Oyo State Chapter of Nigerian Union of Pensioners’ (NUP) Radio station, “Pensioners Radio” will be commissioned in September by Governor Seyi Makinde. The union’s secretary, Comrade Segun Abatan, broke the news when the management of Oyo State Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, led by its Permanent Secretary, Dr. Bashir Olanrewaju, visited the Pensioners’ House at Jericho, Ibadan, to witness the test transmission of the radio station. Abatan said the radio station was the first of its kind in...

Nigeria. FITC explores opportunities in fintech

Operators in the financial services sector have said the industry has experienced disruption because of the innovation related to technology. They also said fintech presented a huge opportunity for the financial sector, especially in getting more unbanked to embrace financial services. They spoke in Lagos during the Financial Institutions Training Centre’s ‘Thought leadership series 2.0’ event, which focused on the implications of disruption of the banking industry by financial technology. The event was attended by industry leaders from the...

July 2019

Welfare Effects of a Non-Contributory Old Age Pension: Experimental Evidence for Ekiti State, Nigeria

By Maria Laura Alzua, Natalia Cantet, Ana Dammert, Damilola Olajide Many countries in the developing world have implemented non-contributory old-age pensions. Evidence of the impact of such policies on the elderly in Sub-Saharan Africa is scarce, however. In this paper, we provide the first evidence from a randomized evaluation of an unconditional, non-contributory pension scheme targeted at the elderly in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Our findings show that treated beneficiaries self-reported better quality of life, more stable mental health, and...

June 2019

Nigeria eyes share of pensions for mortgage industry

Nigeria's National Pensions Commission and the Central Bank of Nigeria are currently exploring a framework where workers under the contributory pensions scheme can access 25 per cent of their contributions for personal home investments. Niyi Falade, CEO of Crusader Sterling Pensions joins CNBC Africa for more. Watch the video @CNBC Africa

Nigeria: Going Beyond N9tr Asset With Pencom’s Micro-Pension Plan

A significant growth in the pension industry's asset size beyond the current value of N9.03 trillion is a new target. But it is riding on the expected success from the extension of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) to the informal sector, while the flexibility of the operation is one of the incentives to encourage participation. The National Pension Commission (PenCom) would drive this new target with Micro Pension Plan (MPP), which allows the informal sector contributors under the CPS...

May 2019

Nigeria. PenCom Invests N8.744tn Pension Assets in 24 Asset Classes

The National Pension Commission (PenCom), said it invested the accumulated N8.744 trillion pension assets in 24 different asset classes with federal government securities taking the lion share of 72.91 per cent of the total funds. A breakdown of this showed that federal government bonds which got 51.29 per cent share and investment in treasury bills got 20.40 per cent. PenCom, in a recent publication on its website stated that as at January 31,2019, other asset classes in...

April 2019

Nigeria inaugurates School of Pensions, Retirement Planning

Nigeria has commissioned the first Abuja School of Pensions and Retirement Planning (ASPRP) to provide tertiary education for the acquisition of vital skills and capacity in pension administration and management.n and management. The school, a private sector-driven monotechnic, is approved by the Ministry of Education, having met the requirements of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE). Malam Muhammad Bello, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, said the establishment of the school was a proof of FCT administration’s commitment...

Nigeria. ‘PenCom’ll not pay to fraudsters’

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) said it has put stringent measures in place to prevent payment of pension to fraudsters. Its Acting Director-General, Mrs Aisha Dahir-Umar who gave the assurance in an interview with The Nation said the administration and payments of retirement benefits under the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2004, as repealed by PRA 2014, 2014 is fool proof. She said the Commission also checks to confirm that information submitted to it are correct before granting approval for...