Mrs Chinelo Anohu-Amazu
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Chuks Udo Okonta
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) says about 77 per cent of the over 7 million Retirement Saving Account (RSA) holders were below 50 years.
PenCom in a report, noted that analysis of the age distribution of RSA holders revealed that membership of the scheme is very young as about 77 per cent of the members were below 50 years and about 50 per cent of the members still remained under 40 years.
The commission maintained that the demography of the scheme, favored longer accumulation periods and long-term investments such as instruments that would support provision of necessary infrastructure for economic development.
According to the report, 772,585 of RSA holders are less than 30 years, while, 2.73 million are between (30-39); 1.91 million, (40-49); 1.22 million, (50-59), 303,473, (60-65) and 112,915 above 65 years.
Poised to deepened the sector and enlarge the size of RSA holders, penCom hopes to launch micro pension that would help integrate the informal sector workers into the scheme.
Determined, to ensure the initiative succeeds, the commission has commenced a nationwide dialogue with self-employed persons and workers in the informal sector ahead of the commencement of the Micro Pension scheme which is expected to integrate over 20 million workers.
Micro Pension is a financial programme for the provision of pension services to self-employed persons and informal sector workers. The programme has been successful in India, Kenya, Ghana and other countries even as it is expected to take off in the country before the end of this year.
Addressing participants at the one day workshop on the CPS for Self Employed Tailors and Garment Workers in Lagos, the Director General of PenCom, Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu said the Federal Government planned to bring the over 50 million workers in the informal sector into the CPS using the Micro Pension initiative.
She said Government hopes to bring at least 20 million informal sector workers and self-employed persons into the Scheme in the next four years and assured that necessary arrangements were being put in place to ensure a smooth take off of the Scheme later this year.
“Take care of your financial needs in old age now that you are working, not later. Whatever you gain here please share with your colleagues at the branches and local units,” Mrs. Anohu-amazu admonished.
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