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By Rita Okoye
On a busy morning in Lagos, a market trader sets aside ₦500 from her sales. In the past, that money might have gone into an informal savings group or under her mattress.
Today, she pulls out her phone, makes a quick transfer, and watches the balance in her Micro Pension account tick upward. For her, it is more than a transaction, it represents newfound security.
Behind that simple act lies years of innovation, advocacy, and leadership—and at the center of it is Folake Bankole, Chief Financial Officer of Sigma Pensions.
Informality defines Nigeria’s labor market. Nearly 93% of employed Nigerians work in the informal sector, reflecting a vast population left out of traditional retirement system . The informal economy contributes around 58% of Nigeria’s GDP, anchoring livelihoods across the country. In fact, a 2024 Jobberman/Mastercard Foundation report revealed that 76.7% of Nigerian workers operate outside formal employment structures.
That means millions of artisans, traders, and gig workers are excluded from retirement savings systems—yet many are among the most financially vulnerable.
Folake understood this gap firsthand as a regulator at the Central Bank of Nigeria, where she witnessed the role that microfinance banks (MFBs) and microfinance institutions (MFIs) played in expanding access to financial services. In the early 2000s, these institutions served fewer than 1 million people, despite an estimated 40 million Nigerians in need of such services.
Drawing from that experience and with deep foundations in finance and strategy she recognized that pensions could follow a similar inclusive, digital-first model for scale and accessibility.
“We cannot build an inclusive financial system by ignoring the people who make up the majority of the workforce,” she often remarked.
When the National Pension Commission (PenCom) introduced the Micro Pension Plan in 2019, it laid the groundwork for inclusion. But operationalizing the plan remained a significant challenge, one that demanded real-world solutions.
At Sigma Pensions, Folake led the charge to build digital financial systems that could reach informal sector savers. She pushed for mobile payment integration, real-time dashboards, and easy onboarding, ensuring that contributions, even small ones, could be made conveniently and transparently.
For Folake, digital platforms were more than a tech trend, they were tools of empowerment. She believed that trust in pension systems grows when contributors can see their money at work. By investing in user-friendly tech, she helped ensure savers could track contributions, returns, and account statements with clarity. Her approach turned skepticism into confidence.
“Folake always asked, ‘How would this look to the trader in Balogun Market?’ She refused to let us design systems only for corporate employees,” recalls a former colleague.
By 2021, Sigma Pensions had become a leading driver of Micro Pension adoption, a direct result of Folake’s digital-first systems. Traders, artisans, and gig workers who previously had no path to retirement savings were now setting aside modest sums with confidence.
“Every ₦500 contribution is a small victory,” Folake reflected. “It represents one more Nigerian who has a stake in the future, one more person who will retire with dignity.”
Her leadership also dovetailed with Nigeria’s broader financial inclusion mission, connecting pensions to mobile banking, fintech platforms, and public education campaigns.
Bankole’s impact extended into policy as she collaborated with PenCom and other stakeholders to strengthen pension frameworks and adopt technology-friendly practices. Her advocacy balanced innovation with governance, ensuring Micro Pensions scaled with sound risk management and transparency.
Through her work in Micro Pensions, Folake helped lay the foundations for a system that could extend to millions of informal workers. This is not finance for its own sake, it’s about human impact.
“The success of pensions in Nigeria will not be measured only in assets under management,” she said. “It will be measured in how many lives we touch, how many families can retire without fear, and how deeply we build a culture of saving.”
For the market trader saving daily, the artisan building a future, and the driver securing their tomorrow, pensions have begun to feel real. Much of that shift is thanks to leaders like Folake Bankole, who insisted that financial systems serve people not the other way around.
