Age, gender shape pension enrolment

Preference for younger people and male gender employment has continued to shape pension enrolment in Africa’s most populous nation.

Quarter-on quarter, year-on-year, data reveal that pension enrolment for Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders continues to favour younger people less than 30 years and more men than women.

Data from the National Pension Commission (PenCom) in first quarter of 2023 revealed that out of 83,653 people enrolled in the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and issued RSA PINs, about 84 percent or 70,407 of them were below 40 years, while 38,382 or 46 percent were below 30 years of age.

Read also: Naira falls by 28.96% at official market after devaluation

PenCom said these points to the increasing sustainability of the CPS, as the younger generation is actively being enlisted into the scheme.

On gender distribution, the commission’s data revealed that 50,158 or about 60 percent of those that registered during the quarter were males, thus sustaining dominance over the female gender in terms of registration into the scheme

Further peep into the data showed that total pension contributions remitted to individual RSAs in Q1 2023 stood at N225.49 billion.

Out of this, the public sector accounted for N124.70 billion or 55.30 percent, while the private sector contributed N100.79 billion or 44.70 percent.

The cumulative pension contributions from inception to the end of the first quarter of 2023 amounted to N8.70 trillion.

Also, aggregate pension contributions of the public sector increased from N4.02 trillion in Q1 2022 to N4.15 trillion as at the end of Q2 2022.

Similarly, the aggregate pension contributions of the private sector also increased from N3.76 trillion in Q1 2022 to N3.86 trillion as at the end of Q2 2022, the commission said.

On outlook, PenCom says Nigeria economic growth remains subdued and fragile due to weak macroeconomic fundamentals, including challenges associated with government’s fiscal position, decline in foreign exchange reserves, inflationary and exchange pressures.

“The economic outlook for succeeding quarters of 2023 is cautious optimism as the new administration policy direction becomes clearer.

According to the commission, pension funds are expected to increase as the current higher yields on investment in fixed income securities would raise nominal returns. “The equity market also provides opportunities for PFAs to take strategic positions in sound but undervalued stocks for long term benefit.”

As of the end of March 2023, total registered RSA holders were 9,945,537, while total pension assets under management by the 19 Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) stood at N15.583 trillion.