A monthly pension enrolment data released by the National Pension Commission (PenCom) on Monday show that more men are having secured and guaranteed retirement future than their women counterparts.
As the end of November 2018, 5.92 million males both in public and private sector employment have enrolled into the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), while only 2.46 million women have enrolled, bringing total enrolees to 8.39 million. The same trend continued through December, with men totalling 5.94 million while women totalled 2.47 million.
This implies that more men will have something to fall back on during their retirement, whereas majority of the women who have no structured pension arrangement will have to depend on their children and husbands for survival at old age.
The objective of the Contributory Pension Scheme is to ensure that every person who worked in either the public service of the federation, Federal Capital Territory, states and local government or the private sector receives his retirement benefits as and when due. It also targets to assist improvident individuals by ensuring that they save in order to cater for their livelihood during old age.
The gap between male and female enrolees into Nigeria’s Contributory Pension Scheme reinforces the gender inequality in the workplace and the fact that more of the women operate in the informal sectors of the economy.
Susan Oranye, executive secretary, Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOp), said global report on behavioural pattern show that women are naturally inclined to saving something, whereas their male counterparts like spending.
According to her, the passion for savings has not become significant because many of the women operate in the informal sector where there is not enough structure to encourage savings habit.
Oranye said this is the excitement as the Nigerian pension industry prepares to launch its micro pension scheme that will open the door for women who do not have the opportunity to save for retirement to begin to save.
“When this scheme takes off, you will begin to see more women enrol in the pension scheme like their male counterparts,” Oranye said.
Juliet Ehimuan, Google’s country director, said the conversation around addressing gender equality needs to include its relativity with equal opportunity and economic growth.
Ehimuan said during the 2019 Women’s Day Celebration that 75 percent of women were still outside of the formal and non-agricultural sector compared to 89 percent of men.
The statistics, she said, derive from the fact that many girls were still being denied the opportunity of education and getting married off early when they should be developing themselves. This is worsened by the discrimination of women in the workplace and the different sectors of the economy and areas of the society.
“We want to ensure every woman has the right skills and is able to participate in the economy and develop herself appropriately,” she said.
She said Google has unveiled 18 additional skills and talent development centres, Womenwill, across Africa, part of whose objective is to foster economic parity for women.
The initiative unveiled to commemorate 2019 International Women’s Day will see economic opportunities broaden for women in Lekki, Onitsha, Accra, Cape Town, Dar es Salaam and Johannesburg, through exposure to technological training, advocacy around gender equality and networking.
The 18 new chapters which bring the total number to 25 were concurrently launched in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nairobi, Kenya and Lagos, Nigeria following a week of digital skills master-classes for 5,000 women.
The sex ratio in Nigeria remained 102 men per 100 women, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
In 2016, Nigeria’s population was estimated at 193 million people compared to about 187 million in 2015. Out of this number, women and men constituted 49.2 percent and 50.8 percent, respectively.
Modetus Anaesoronye
