More than 90 per cent of informal sector workers who enrolled in the Personal Pension Plan, PPP, have abandoned the scheme, as subscribers blame worsening economic hardship for their inability to make regular pension contributions.

Financial Vanguard findings show that only 17,320, representing eight per cent of the 215,412 registered Retirement Savings Accounts, RSAs, under the scheme, had received contributions as at December 2025, while the remaining 198,092 accounts, representing 92 per cent, were dormant.

Many traders and artisans also expressed ignorance of the scheme or how it works, even as the National Pension Commission, PenCom, pledged to expand awareness through accredited agents, fintechs, cooperatives and other distribution partners.

Financial Vanguard findings showed that although registrations under the PPP have continued to rise, the proportion of active contributors has remained extremely low.

Available PenCom data showed that while registered PPP accounts rose by 175 per cent in four years to 215,412 in 2025 from 78,087 in 2022, the proportion of dormant accounts also increased to 92 per cent from 87.4 per cent during the same period.

The trend has persisted over the years. In 2024, about 157,476 out of the 172,936 registered accounts, representing 91.1 per cent, were dormant, as only 15,460 accounts received contributions. Similarly, in 2023, about 101,232 of the 114,382 registered accounts, representing 88.5 per cent, were inactive, while only 13,150 contributors made pension payments.

Decrying the situation, PenCom stated that registrations are not savings, and that registration without funding creates a misleading picture of inclusion.

PenCom noted that the development indicates the need for targeted strategies to drive regular contributions, such as improved participant education, incentive structures and streamlined remittance processes, to ensure the long-term sustainability and effectiveness of the PPP.

The PPP, formerly known as the Micro Pension Plan, was created by PenCom to extend Nigeria’s financial inclusion frontier, while encouraging low-income groups, mainly self-employed and informal sector workers, to build pension savings for their old age.

The scheme, one of the Federal Government’s most strategic financial inclusion initiatives packaged and implemented by PenCom, envisaged enrolling about nine million registrants by 2023.

However, PenCom believes that Pension Fund Administrators, PFAs, have been lackadaisical in creating awareness of the PPP.

This development compelled the regulatory body to mandate PFAs to submit annual awareness plans for the PPP or face sanctions.

While PFAs have been complying with the directive, the PPP has continued to crawl over the years.

Experts’ insight

Worried by the state of the PPP, experts believe there is vast untapped potential in the informal sector and an urgent need for a broader, more coordinated effort by the pension industry to deepen PPP penetration.

According to them, strengthening public awareness, expanding agent networks and tailoring products to the realities of informal sector workers will be essential to achieving national pension inclusion targets and ensuring the long-term sustainability of the PPP.

Speaking on the development, Managing Director of Anchor Actuarial Services, Mr. Pius Apere, said that the PPP is designed to bring self-employed members of the public into the pension system with a view to safeguarding them against poverty in old age.

Apere stated: “The government must do all within its power to turn the economy around for the better to prevent further withdrawals from pension savings. An average Nigerian must have one form of pension scheme or the other, whether formal or informal, and the PPP can help us include more Nigerians in the financial safety net. PPP can be made a big deal in Nigeria.”

Also commenting, former President of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria, CIIN, Mr. Edwin Igbiti, said: “The implementation of the PPP will improve the standard of living of informal sector participants at retirement and reduce dependence on extended family support.”

He noted that self-employed people and workers in the informal sector could enjoy financial and economic protection by participating in the plan, as the initiative would provide income in old age and inculcate a savings culture through highly protected and regulated investments.

In his own comment, Managing Director of Boff Insurance Brokers, Mr. Olumide Fatogun, said that pension fund operators must be more creative in product design by introducing products that hold multiple benefits to attract more people to embrace the scheme.

He stated: “The era of one-size-fits-all in consumer engagement is gone; therefore, operators should be more ingenious in their product designs.

We have to sufficiently target specific segments of society with varying needs. This means operators must remain innovative and creative with their services and products. We need to rethink our old ways.”

Informal sector concerns

However, Founder and President of the Association of Micro Enterprises of Nigeria, AMEN, Prince Saviour Iche, believes that the stagnation being experienced in the PPP is due to little or no awareness of the scheme.

Iche stated: “The PPP is a good scheme and can go a long way in eradicating old-age poverty. However, there is little or no awareness of the scheme. How do you expect people to key into something when they have little or no knowledge about it? Many of my members have never heard of the scheme.

“We expect the National Pension Commission, PenCom, as well as other stakeholders in the industry, to carry out regular enlightenment on the scheme, but we are not seeing that.”

Also speaking, Iyaloja of Onigbongo, Mrs. Fasilat Yusuf, said she had never heard of the PPP before.

She stated: “I have not heard of the PPP before, and my fellow traders are not aware of it. Nobody has come to tell us what it is, how it works or how it can benefit us.”

Also, Chairman of the Vulcanisers Association, Maryland (Lagos) Zone, Mr. Bayo Alagbe, said that the absence of sensitisation on the PPP is adversely affecting the scheme.

He stated: “I heard about the PPP some time ago, but I did not understand anything about it. Even my members do not know anything about it. Nobody has come to tell us what it entails and what we stand to gain.

“I know that some people opened accounts, but many of them still do not understand it. That is why they are not following up.”

On her part, Acting National President of the Small Scale Women Farmers Organisation, Mrs. Ojo Florence, said that the worsening economic situation is affecting the income of many informal sector workers. She stated: “The economy is not smiling. As such, putting money aside for pension is not the priority of many informal sector workers at the moment.

“Even many of my members are not aware that something like the PPP exists because nobody has ever come to educate them about it.”

Way forward, by PenCom

To improve the situation, PenCom stated: “We will accelerate engagement and onboarding under the accredited pension agent framework; activate accredited agents; deepen distribution partnerships with cooperatives, fintechs, telcos, trade unions and professional associations; and drive sustained sensitisation campaigns to bring informal sector workers, MSMEs, gig workers and self-employed Nigerians onto the Personal Pension Plan.” (Vanguard)

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