Photo caption: PenCom logo
*Launches US$250 million pension industry infrastructure investment consortium
By Charles Okonji
PenCom has grown its assets from ₦20.79 trillion in July 2024 to ₦31.48 trillion in June 2026, more than ₦10.7 trillion in new retirement wealth in under two years.
The PenCom DG, Omolola Oloworaran who stated this, at the 2026 PenCom Media Conference, titled “Reform to Reality: Renewed Hope Pension Security for Nigerians,” noted that same period, 938,229 Nigerians joined the Contributory Pension Scheme.
Oloworaran stressed that these are the savings of workers who will depend on them in later life, promising that the commission will steward them with competence, integrity and prudence.
She started that the launch of a US$250 million Pension Industry Infrastructure Investment Consortium has been approved.
According to her; “For the first time, Nigeria’s pension industry has jointly committed its own funds to infrastructure. The Council has endorsed the phased launch of a US$250 million Pension Industry Infrastructure Investment Consortium: US$200 million from pension fund operators as anchor investors through cash calls over 10 years, and a further US$50 million sought from development finance institutions, with whom discussions are ongoing.
“This is a beginning, not a ceiling. As sound opportunities grow, so will this commitment. Nigeria needs productive investment. Contributors need secure returns. We will serve both, through rigorous project selection and uncompromising protection of contributors’ interests.”
The PenCom DG noted that for the first time, retirees across the Contributory Pension Scheme have received a pension increase across the board, adding that Pension Boost 1.0 raised the monthly pensions of more than 241,000 retirees, as total monthly pension payments rose from ₦12.15 billion to ₦14.83 billion.
“For the first time in 21 years, pensioners of the defunct Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund have had their pensions reviewed. Their pensions had stood still since 2005. We invoked the law, directed a full review, and delivered an unprecedented increase of 1,173 per cent.
“Combined monthly pensions for 2,116 NSITF retirees rose from ₦12.56 million to ₦159.95 million, and ₦8.70 billion in arrears has been paid. One retiree who received about ₦18,000 a month now receives about ₦206,000. Twenty-one years of waiting, answered in a single decision.
“For the first time, the Federal Government has cleared the pension liabilities it inherited, some of them outstanding since 2007, almost two decades. President Tinubu approved the ₦758 billion Federal Government Pension Bond, and through it, payments have reached 957,045 beneficiaries. Nearly one million Nigerians. These obligations had passed from one administration to the next. This administration chose to settle them.
“That is what statesmanship looks like. Not a promise made, but a debt paid.
“Through our one-time verification and enrolment exercise, accrued rights have already been credited to the Retirement Savings Accounts of enrolled federal employees due to retire up to December 2029.
“Under our Zero Waiting Time policy, federal retirees now begin to receive their pensions as they retire, in step with the monthly salary cycle. The era of retiring into a queue is ending. I urge every eligible employee and every Ministry, Department and Agency to complete enrolment before the exercise closes in December 2026.
“For the first time, retirement benefits that once took up to 21 months to approve are now approved within 48 hours. This is not a target. It is a mandatory service standard, binding on every Pension Fund Administrator. Twenty-one months. Forty-eight hours. For the first time, Nigeria has an Exit Benefit Scheme.
“Since 1st of January 2026, eligible employees of Treasury funded federal MDAs with at least ten years of qualifying service receive an additional benefit equal to 100 per cent of their total annual emolument, on top of their normal pension. The first 175 retirees received approximately ₦1.1 billion in August. A full year’s pay, as the thanks of a grateful nation.
“For the first time, the pension system has a national distribution network built to reach the informal sector. Our Accredited Pension Agents are taking the Personal Pension Plan into markets, motor parks, farms and workshops: to the trader, the artisan, the farmer and the transport worker.
Every agent we accredit is a new livelihood. Every Nigerian they enrol is a future secured. We are widening coverage and creating jobs in the same act,band the biggest of them all is only weeks away. Later this month, during National Pension Week, two historic commitments will move from reform to reality.
“The first is PenCare, our retiree healthcare programme. It will give eligible low-income retirees access to essential healthcare at no cost to them, beginning with 30,000 retirees. No Nigerian should retire into poverty, and no Nigerian should retire into ill health.
“The second is the Minimum Pension Guarantee. For the first time, a protection that has stood in our pension law for more than a decade will take effect. It will set a floor beneath which no eligible retiree under the Contributory Pension Scheme will fall. For the retiree with the smallest savings, that floor is the difference between hardship and dignity.” She averred.
