PenCom mulls incentives to boost acceptance of micropension scheme

Managers of the pension industry in the country said that they are working in devising incentives which will enable the private sector to queue into the pension scheme if only to guarantee a better life after their retirement.

Head of micropension Department at the National Pensions Commission (PenCom) Mr. Dauda Ahmed who made the revelation at a recent interactive session with journalists in Lagos said that there is the urgent need to bring more people from the informal sector of the economy to embrace pension programme just as he said that the Contributory Pension Scheme of the federal government is living up to its expectations with a quantum leap in the value of the scheme’s assets.

He regretted that inspect of efforts by PenCom to woo operators of the informal sectors comprising of artisans, the self employed, traders and market men and women to take advantage of the micropension insurance to plan for their retirement, the number of enrollees in the scheme is yet to cross the 72,000 mark.

It was against this backdrop that he said PenCom is considering the introduction of some incentives which will attract prospective enrollees into the scheme.

 Mr Duada Ahmed said that the idea behind the introduction of Micropension (MPP) Plan by PenCom in  March of 2019 was to help operators of the informal sector plan for their retirement. The scheme he said is gaining tracking. He was quick to observe the desire of PenCom to get more of the informal sector into the pension fund safety net.

According to him, self employed people among those in trade and related businesses are the primary target of the MPP hence the flexibility in design and operation of the scheme which allows contributors to chose whether to make daily, weekly or monthly payment into their Retirement Savings Account (RSA).

It would be recalled the pension assets under the jurisdiction of PenComm is in excess of N12 trillion.

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