Director-General of the National Pension Commission, Omolola Oloworaran, has expressed concern over the negative growth recorded in the pension industry since 2021.
Speaking on Thursday at the 2025 Pension Industry Leadership Retreat organised under the theme, ‘Sustainable Retirement – Strategic Blueprint for Economic Development and Inclusion,’ Oloworaran stated that the Pension Reform Act 2004 empowers PenCom to regulate, supervise and ensure the effective administration of pension matters in Nigeria.
She explained that the functions of the Commission include regulation and supervision of the Contributory Pension Scheme, established under the Act.
The PenCom DG explained that the theme of the retreat challenges stakeholders to reimagine the future of pensions in Nigeria, to protect and grow retirement savings and to unlock the transformative power of pension assets as catalyst for national development.
The PenCom boss noted that over the past two decades, the country’s pension industry has achieved remarkable milestones – over N23 trillion in assets under management, more than 10 million contributors, and a regulatory framework that is globally respected.
“But we must also confront an uncomfortable truth, the pension industry is no longer growing in real terms, and since 2021 it’s unfortunate, it’s been a negative growth trajectory, and I would like us to focus on that today.
“We are also witnessing a concerning trend where pension fund administrators are merely transferring retirement savings account balances amongst themselves with limited net new contributions or meaningful expansion into untapped segments.
“This is not good, and it must change. If we remain on this trajectory, we risk managing a mature but stagnant system,” she added.
Oloworaran noted that what was required was exponential growth that opens access to over 77 million informal sector workers.
According to her, as at today, less than 10,000 of the 77 million informal sector workers in Nigeria are active contributors under the CPS.
She also spoke of the need for “growth that fuels infrastructure and food security – two of Nigeria’s most urgent national priorities – growth that delivers real returns and preserves dignity in retirement”.
“Globally, we have seen how pension funds have transformed national economies across the world,” she noted.
Noting that pension funds have been utilized to finance infrastructure in developed countries like Australia, while in South Africa, housing developments are supported by pension funds.
She added, “These countries achieved impact not by playing it safe, but by balancing prudence with bold, forward-looking strategies that protected savers while enabling long-term national development. We must do the same.”
Oloworaran maintained that for the sector to contribute significantly to the economy, there may be a need to make some changes, saying that the Pension Reform Act places on them the responsibility of protecting and growing retirement savings accounts.
She added that it is not a passive obligation, but a charge to act by taking bold yet calculated decisions, stressing that they need to evolve their investment guidelines, as they need to deepen financial markets, foster innovative financial market products, and above all, need to bring every working Nigerian, regardless of their status, into the pension system.
She noted that the retreat presents an opportunity to ask hard but necessary questions.
“How do we unlock infrastructure and food security financing without compromising safety and liquidity? How do we deepen our markets to support alternative assets whilst maintaining prudence and preserving value? How do we leverage technology and data to transform the pension industry? And how do we measure success, not just the naira value or dollar value, but by impact, impact on people’s lives?
“The Nigerian pension industry has the power to shift the development trajectory of our country,” she added.
