The Director-General of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), Omolola Oloworaran, has urged Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) and different trade stakeholders to open three million further funded Retirement Savings Accounts inside one year.
Oloworaran disclosed this on Thursday on the National Pension Conference and Awards in Abuja, attended by Nairametrics and held as a part of the continuing National Pension Week 2026.
The name comes after Nigeria’s pension industry delivered a powerful efficiency in the primary 9 months (9M) of 2025, with a number of Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) recording spectacular common returns throughout the 4 Retirement Savings Account (RSA) fund classes.
Roadmap for the subsequent decade of Nigeria’s pension trade
Delivering her keynote tackle, Oloworaran maintained that 5 main reforms, or shifts, should happen throughout the subsequent 10 years to additional reposition Nigeria’s pension trade.
- “I believe the next decade of Nigerian pensions rests on five shifts,” she mentioned.
The first shift, in line with her, is from payroll to inhabitants.
She highlighted that, for 20 years, the pension scheme had adopted salaries.
- “Now it must follow the worker, to the market, to the motor park, the farm cluster, and the phone in every pocket,” she added.
She mentioned that, by the Personal Pension Plan (PPP), accredited pension brokers and different initiatives, the Commission would attain Nigerians the place they’re.
To obtain this, she disclosed that she had requested trade gamers to decide to opening three million further funded energetic accounts throughout the subsequent year.
- “And the good news: the owners of all our pension fund administrators have committed to that. Not registrations, 3 million funded active accounts, new accounts. Because an empty account is a statistic, but a funded account is a future and might just be the beginning of planning the security of that future,” she added.
The second reform is from financial savings to safety, making certain that no Nigerian who has served and labored for the nation and saved for retirement ought to develop outdated in need.
According to her, that promise will materialise in November, 2026 when President Bola Tinubu launches the Pension Security Initiative.
She additionally referred to as for a shift from dedication to enforcement, including that, throughout the subsequent decade, the Commission would use each energy conferred on it by the Pension Reform Act to recuperate what’s owed to staff.
She suggested each employer in Nigeria to see pensions not as deductions however as a declaration that the individuals who construct their companies is not going to be deserted after they can not work.
- She proposed the fourth reform as a motion “from size to strength.”
She highlighted {that a} pension trade holding the financial savings of hundreds of thousands of Nigerians have to be sturdy sufficient to guard them.
She reiterated that each pension fund administrator and custodian should full recapitalisation by June 30, 2027.
She proposed that the pension trade should transfer from capital to growth over the subsequent decade.
- “Pension money is not government money. It is not industry money. It is the deferred wages of Nigerians—hard-working Nigerian workers,” she mentioned.
Drawing classes from international jurisdictions the place staff personal stakes in airports and roads, she mentioned these deferred wages might additionally assist construct a nation.
She defined that Nigerian financial savings might finance energy, roads, housing and enterprises that may create the subsequent era of contributors.
President Tinubu calls for larger accountability
Speaking to the viewers, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, referred to as for stronger regulatory oversight, improved compliance and larger accountability throughout the pension ecosystem.
- He warned in opposition to reckless funding selections, stressing that pension funds have to be managed professionally and with due regard for the pursuits of contributors and retirees.
According to the President, funding selections ought to be primarily based on rigorous assessments of dangers and returns.
He charged PenCom to maintain its function as a forward-looking regulator by implementing related legal guidelines and requirements with out worry or favour whereas making certain that pension fund directors and different operators remained accountable.
Accredited pension brokers should step up — Tunji Andrews
Speaking with Nairametrics, the CEO of Awabah, Tunji Andrews, mentioned that, no less than for Awabah, the bottlenecks related to expertise and entry had been addressed.
According to him, what’s now required of licensed accredited pension brokers and different stakeholders is critical work in elevating consciousness to encourage extra Nigerians to affix the pension system.
- He added that, whereas the regulator remained on the centre of the pension ecosystem, there was rather more his colleagues wanted to do to “meet up to what the regulator has put as benchmark for us.”
He urged accredited pension brokers to step up their efforts to satisfy the requirements set by the regulator.
Competition intensifies amongst pension fund directors
Among Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), Nairametrics beforehand reported that prime 5 operators accounted for 54.41% of new Retirement Savings Account (RSA) registrations in the primary quarter of 2026, down from 62.11% in the earlier quarter.
Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers led the trade with 25,024 new RSA registrations, representing 17.47% of the entire.
Other main operators included:
- AccessARM Pensions – 10.63%
- FCMB Pensions – 10.15%
- TangerineAPT Pensions – 9.65%
- Trustfund Pensions – 6.73%
PenCom had famous that TangerineAPT’s emergence among the many prime 5 operators alerts rising competitors throughout the sector.
(*3*)
