Pension assets rise by ₦10.7tn to ₦31.48tn in two years – PenCom

Nigeria’s pension assets have grown by more than ₦10.7 trillion in the last two years, rising from ₦20.79 trillion to ₦31.48 trillion, representing a 51 per cent increase, the National Pension Commission (PenCom) has said.

PenCom Director-General, Omolola Oloworaran, disclosed this on Tuesday during a State House press briefing in Abuja to mark her second anniversary in office, attributing the growth to renewed confidence in the country’s pension system.

She said the increase in pension assets reflected growing trust among contributors and improved performance of the contributory pension scheme.

“Pension assets have grown from ₦20.79 trillion to ₦31.48 trillion – more than ₦10.7 trillion in new retirement wealth, a fifty-one percent increase, in just two years,” Oloworaran said.

She added, “Let me say plainly what those numbers mean: confidence is back.”

According to the PenCom boss, the expansion of pension assets has been accompanied by increased participation in the scheme, with 938,229 additional Nigerians enrolling as contributors over the same period.

She also highlighted measures introduced to improve retirement benefits, including Pension Boost 1.0, which raised aggregate monthly pension payments by 22 per cent from ₦12.2 billion to ₦14.9 billion.

Oloworaran said the commission had also strengthened compliance with pension remittances, noting that recoveries of unremitted contributions exceeded ₦36 billion in the last two years, compared with ₦28 billion recovered in all previous years combined. Compliance, she added, has increased by 28 per cent, while retirement benefit approvals are now completed within 48 hours.

She further disclosed that the Federal Government’s ₦758 billion pension bond had settled outstanding pension obligations dating back to 2007, benefiting 957,045 Nigerians and moving accrued pension rights from a 21-month backlog to a 41-month surplus.