‘Only 215,914 informal workers enrolled in personal pensions as 92m remain uncovered’

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has disclosed that just 215,914 Nigerians in the informal sector are enrolled in the Personal Pension Plan (PPP), leaving about 91.88 million workers without any form of pension cover out of an estimated 92.1 million informal-sector workforce.

The pension regulator, in its third-quarter 2025 report, said the figures highlight the enormous untapped potential within the informal sector and underscore the need for a more deliberate and coordinated industry-wide strategy to deepen micro-pension adoption.

PenCom noted that achieving national pension inclusion targets would require intensified public awareness campaigns, expansion of agent networks, and the development of pension products specifically tailored to the realities of informal-sector workers, to also ensure the long-term sustainability of the PPP scheme.

A review of PPP registrations in the third quarter of 2025 further revealed a highly concentrated market structure, with AccessARM and Stanbic IBTC jointly accounting for 68 per cent of all registered Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) as at September 30, 2025. AccessARM retained its leadership position with 50 per cent of total registered participants, while Stanbic IBTC followed with 18 per cent.

According to the report, AccessARM recorded strong new registrations during the quarter, while Stanbic IBTC posted only modest growth. Other operators such as Parthian Pensions and CardinalStone Pensions Limited recorded minimal activity, contributing just 0.01 per cent and 0.02 per cent respectively to total registrations in Q3 2025.

PenCom added that as at the end of the quarter, total PPP contributors represented only about 0.23 per cent of Nigeria’s estimated informal-sector workforce, based on data from the Nigeria Labour Force Survey by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).