The National Pension Commission (PenCom)has expressed optimism that the recent recapitalisation exercise in the pension industry will bring about increased effectiveness and efficiency as well as improved service delivery in the sector.
The Director-General, National Pension Commission, Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar, who disclosed this at the 2022 workshop organized by PenCom to journalists in Lagos, also promised to continue to develop and implement innovative polices to foster safety and fair returns on pension fund investment as the pension industry and financial system evolves.
She was represented at the event by the Head of Corporate Communications Department, Mr. Abdulqadir Dahiru
She disclosed that the Commission was taking strategic steps to encourage more participation of workers from the informal sector of the economy in the Micro Pension Plan in order to expand the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
She also said the theme of this year’s workshop, “Increasing Informal Sector Participation in the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS): The case for Micro Pension Plan”, aligns with the Commission’s objective of expanding coverage of the CPS.
According to her,the objective is to bring in to the CPS, Nigerians working in the informal sector and those who are self employed through the Micro Pension Plan (MPP), noting that “it is of utmost importance to educate the media on the MPP and enlist your support to make the Plan popular amongst informal sector workers and the self-employed.
She added that the Commission’s directive to increase the Minimum Regulatory Capital (Shareholders’ Fund) from N1 billion to N5 billion. was to ramp up the capacity of the Pension Fund Administrators to manage the increasing number of registered contributors, and the value of pension fund assets.
She disclosed that as at June 30, 2022, the number of registered contributors and the pension fund assets stood at 9,795,957million and N14.27 Trillion, respectively.
