Creating more jobs, economic stability and regulatory enforcement will play key role in sustaining growth of Nigeria’s pension industry.

Data released by the National Pension Commission (PenCom) and analysed by PenOp shows that registration count in Nigeria’s pension grew steadily from 9.15 million in 2020 to 10.50 million in 2024, reflecting increased pension adoption.

Analysts at Pension Fund Operators Association (PenOp) believes that expanding employment opportunities particularly in the formal sector will increase registration and enrolment of younger people into the pension scheme.

According to then, the annual growth rate remained around 3.4 percent to 3.9 percent, with the highest increase in 2024.

“Factors driving this growth include stronger regulatory enforcement, higher employment in the formal sector, and improved compliance with the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).”

The PenOp analysts said continued growth will depend on job creation, economic stability, and policy enforcement to enhance retirement security.

Chinwe Njemanze, human resource officer with a pension Fund Administrator (PFA) said if businesses are incentivized through tax breaks or other benefits to create jobs that qualify for pension contributions, they are growth potential for pensions.

This she said would not only boost the number of jobs available but also create a pathway for long-term financial security for workers.

On how government will enhance pension enrolment, she said policies could be implemented that support start-ups and small businesses in providing pension contributions for their employees.

“This would create a more inclusive system where even new and small companies can contribute to the financial well-being of their workforce”.

Njemanze said one of the effective ways to ensure growth of the pension scheme is through enforcement of compliance, stating that these contributions should be closely monitored and enforced by the pension regulator, PenCom.

Through the Pension Recovery Agents, PenCom has continued to enforce compliance.

In a recent advertorial, PenCom says it has continued to enforce the provisions of the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2014 to safeguard the pension rights of employees.

Under Section 92(2) of the PRA 2014, the Commission is empowered to appoint Recovery Agents to review employers’ pension records and ascertain their outstanding pension liabilities.

Since the commencement of the recovery exercise in June 2012, significant milestones in recoveries of unremitted pension contributions have been made.

“As of December 2024, a total of N28.18 billion has been successfully recovered from 911 employers. This amount comprises N13.83 billion as outstanding pension contributions and N14.35 billion in penalties for late remittances.

Accordingly, the Commission also listed 41 Recovery Agents as having been engaged and assigned to various employers for the exercise.

“In addition, the Recovery Agents are required to present introductory letters issued by PenCom and addressed to the specific employer before commencing the exercise.”

The key responsibilities of the Recovery Agents include reviewing the records of the employers and determining outstanding pension liabilities from January 2005.

They are also to compute the penalty on outstanding pension contributions; serving demand letters on defaulting employers requesting for remittance of outstanding pension contributions with penalty after obtaining a ’no objection’ from PenCom and obtaining evidence of remittance of outstanding pension contributions/penalty into the employees’ Retirement Savings Accounts.