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From Adanna Nnamani and Francis Onyedikachukwu, Abuja
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has ruled out any extension of the June 30, 2027 deadline for pension fund administrators (PFAs) and pension fund custodians (PFCs) to complete their recapitalisation.
The Director-General of PenCom, Omolola Oloworaran, stated this on Thursday while outlining the commission’s next phase of reforms, stressing that operators must strengthen their financial capacity to protect workers’ retirement savings.
“We are not changing our minds,” Oloworaran said, insisting that all operators must meet the deadline.
“Size is what we have achieved. Strength is what we now demand,” she added.
She said the recapitalisation exercise was part of efforts to strengthen pension institutions, improve investment performance and ensure that contributors’ savings generate returns capable of protecting them against inflation.
The PenCom boss also disclosed plans to expand pension coverage by securing commitments from pension fund administrators to open three million additional funded and active pension accounts by 2027.
She stressed that the target went beyond registering new contributors to ensuring that the accounts receive regular contributions.
“Not registrations, three million funded active accounts, new accounts, because an empty account is a statistic, but a funded account is a future,” she said.
According to her, the expansion drive will focus on Nigerians outside formal employment, including traders, artisans, farmers and commercial transport operators.
She said PenCom would leverage the Personal Pension Plan, accredited pension agents and digital platforms to make pension participation easier for workers in the informal sector.
Oloworaran noted that the pension industry still had a significant coverage gap, with roughly nine Nigerians outside the scheme for every one covered.
She also announced that President Bola Tinubu was expected to launch a pension security initiative on November 10, 2026, subject to the programme proceeding as scheduled.
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The initiative is expected to include PenCare, a pension-related healthcare programme, and the minimum pension guarantee aimed at providing financial protection for vulnerable retirees.
She said the minimum pension guarantee, provided for under Sections 82 and 84 of the Pension Reform Act 2014, should no longer remain an unfulfilled promise.
Oloworaran said the objective was to prevent retirees from falling into poverty or having to choose between buying medicines and meeting their basic food needs.
She disclosed that almost 70 per cent of private-sector employees receive pensions below the national minimum wage, while more than 55 per cent of all retirees receiving pensions below that threshold come from the private sector.
She attributed the situation partly to the practice of calculating pension contributions on a narrow definition of pensionable earnings rather than workers’ full earnings.
Under the pension framework, the combined statutory contribution rate is 18 per cent of pensionable pay, comprising 10 per cent from employers and eight per cent from employees.
The PenCom chief urged private-sector employers to calculate contributions on a more realistic earnings base and support the pension protection fund.
She also warned employers against deducting pension contributions from workers’ salaries without remitting the funds, saying the commission would use its legal powers to recover outstanding contributions and hold defaulting employers accountable.
Oloworaran said pension assets rose from N20.79tn in July 2024 to N31.8tn at the end of August 2026, an increase of about N11tn in just over two years.
However, she said the growth in assets must translate into better retirement benefits, adding that the commission would strengthen compliance among employers and state governments and encourage more states to join the contributory pension scheme.
She said pension funds could support infrastructure, housing, power and enterprise development, provided investments were made prudently and in contributors’ best interests.
Oloworaran emphasised that pension assets belonged to workers and must not be treated as government funds, stressing that the safety and returns of contributors’ savings must remain the priority.
