The Director General of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), Omolola Oloworaran, has announced that Nigerians working in the informal sector can now save towards their retirement through Point of Sale (POS) terminals operated by fintech companies.
Oloworaran made this known on Monday at an event in Abuja, explaining that the initiative is aimed at increasing pension coverage in the informal sector, which currently has a penetration rate of just 0.25 percent.
She added that the Commission has accredited its first pension agent, Awabah, as part of efforts to deepen financial inclusion and integrate a large proportion of informal sector workers into Nigeria’s pension system.
“What we should expect is pension penetration.
Coverage at the moment in the informal sector is 0.25 percent, rounded down to 0 percent, so essentially we are not doing anything in this area.
The Nigerian economy is also an informal economy. It means that almost everybody is yet to be covered.
“It is for them to take pensions to the street and everywhere in Nigeria to make sure that no Nigerian is left behind in retirement savings.
“What it means is that the informal sector can contribute their pension with mobile phones. It is convenient and seamless,” she said.
On his part, Tuji Andrews, the Co-founder of Awabah, said the goal of the fintech is to ensure that the vast majority of Nigerians are pensionable.
“Our goal is to drive personal pension penetration in Nigeria. What we are doing is enabling Nigerians to walk up to any POS terminal to make payments into their personal pension accounts, making monthly pension contributions easier and more accessible,” he said.
