Business
PenCom Targets 85% Pension Coverage for Nigerian Workers
BY NKECHI NAECHE-ESEZOBOR—Nigeria’s pension industry is set for a major expansion push as the National Pension Commission (PenCom) intensifies efforts to bring more workers into the contributory pension scheme.
Director-General of PenCom, Omolola Oloworaran, disclosed that the commission is aiming to achieve at least 85 percent coverage of Nigerian workers under the scheme. She spoke during a joint annual roundtable session with the leadership of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), part of ongoing stakeholder engagements to deepen transparency, trust, and collaboration in pension administration.
Oloworaran said the commission is deploying multiple strategies, including incentives and expanded outreach, to drive participation across both formal and informal sectors. A key focus is the newly rebranded Personal Pension Plan, previously known as micro pensions, designed to attract a broader segment of Nigerians, particularly those outside formal employment.
“We want a situation where at least 85 percent of Nigerian workers are on the scheme or have the intention to participate,” she said, noting that widening pension coverage remains central to PenCom’s reform agenda.
To boost grassroots adoption, PenCom has introduced accredited pension agents tasked with engaging Nigerians directly in markets, rural communities, and informal workplaces. Unlike Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), which largely operate at corporate levels, these agents are expected to build trust and drive enrollment at the community level.
The initiative also creates a new business stream, particularly for fintech firms, as accredited agents can earn up to 40 percent of PFA fees on an annuity basis. According to Oloworaran, this model is expected to attract new entrants into the pension ecosystem and accelerate onboarding.
PenCom is also leveraging public sensitisation campaigns to increase awareness. During recent engagements around International Women’s Day, the commission recorded strong participation and growing interest, especially among women.
Despite these efforts, Oloworaran acknowledged that compliance within the formal sector remains a significant challenge. She stressed the need for stronger collaboration with labour unions to enforce compliance, particularly among employers who fail to remit pension contributions.
At the subnational level, pension adoption remains uneven, with only eight out of Nigeria’s 36 states demonstrating significant compliance. PenCom said it is intensifying engagements with state governments and labour organisations to improve adoption rates.
The commission also highlighted the flexibility of the Personal Pension Plan, which allows voluntary contributions for individuals, including provisions for parents to save on behalf of their children from birth.
Oloworaran expressed optimism about the future of the industry, noting that ongoing reforms, expanded participation channels, and increased stakeholder collaboration would position Nigeria’s pension system for stronger growth and sustainability.
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Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has revealed how entrenched interests benefiting from Nigeria’s fuel import and subsidy regime tried to frustrate the construction of his $20 billion refinery, describing them as a powerful “mafia” determined to preserve a lucrative subsidy system.
Mr Dangote said the resistance came from traders, shippers and local beneficiaries of Nigeria’s long-running petrol subsidy arrangement who saw the refinery as a threat to billions of naira in profits.
Speaking in an interview with Nicolai Tangen, chief executive officer of the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, he said these interests worked to delay access to project land and frustrate the refinery’s take-off.
“All this would have been blocked by what you call the mafia in oil business to make sure that we don’t come and address these issues,” he said.
He said securing land to build his world-class refinery took five years, with one site delayed for three and a half years and another for one and a half years, as vested interests sought to stop the project.
“But we were not deterred at all. We were actually focused. We knew what we were doing,” he added.
Mr Dangote explained that for decades Nigeria spent huge sums importing refined petroleum products despite being a major crude producer, creating a system that enriched a few players at the expense of the wider economy.
He said subsidy payments alone reached nearly $10 billion annually.
“The people who were actually benefiting because Nigeria was giving almost about $10 billion every year as subsidy… there are shippers who are making tonnes of money, there are traders who are making tonnes of money,” he said.
He added that a small group also profited from local product allocations under the subsidy regime.
“So these are the people that are not agreeing for us to settle down because they believe that no, we are coming here to displace them. Of course, that’s what we have done now,” he said.
The refinery, which required the construction of an entirely new port, roads and water infrastructure, employed 67,000 people during construction, the African billionaire said.
Mr Dangote said the project became far larger and more difficult than initially imagined, but abandoning it was never an option.
READ ALSO: Dangote rejects NNPC’s bid for bigger refinery stake, pushes for wider ownership
“When you get to the middle of the ocean, you realise that the tide was bad. When you go forward, it’s bad. When you go backwards, it’s bad. So you have to work forward,” he said, using the analogy to paint a broader picture of the difficulties he encountered while building the refinery.
He said the refinery has now changed the market structure and significantly reduced the influence of those who depended on imports and subsidy payments.
The plant currently sources over half of its crude from Nigeria while also importing from Angola, Libya and the United States.
“We source about 56 per cent from Nigeria and some from Angola. We buy quite a bit from Angola, we buy from Libya, and we buy from the US. At one point, we were doing about seven to eight cargoes of WTI from the US. But we’re getting more of Nigeria’s crude now, he said.
Mr Dangote explained that the refinery is currently buying 21 cargoes every month in Nigeria. “That’s how big we are,” he added, stating that they are more than doubling the refinery.
“You know, in the next 30 months, we will be at 1.4 million barrels per day, which is huge,” he noted.
BY NECHI NAECHE-ESEZOBOR—The Securities and Exchange Commission has said it is placing artificial intelligence, data analytics and technology-driven regulation at the centre of Nigeria’s capital market reforms to attract both local and foreign investments.
Speaking at the FSDH Investor Conference 2026 in Lagos, the Director-General of the SEC, Emomotimi Agama, said the future of global investing would increasingly depend on the quality of intelligence, data and technology supporting investment decisions rather than the size of capital alone.
According to him, the era of “intelligent investing” has already arrived, driven by artificial intelligence, real-time analytics, distributed ledger technology and algorithmic systems that are reshaping how investments are priced, allocated and protected globally.
He said, “We are at the threshold of what scholars and practitioners are calling the era of intelligent investing — a paradigm in which data does not merely inform decisions, but actively participates in them.”
Agama noted that the SEC had embarked on what he described as the most comprehensive regulatory reform agenda in its history to ensure Nigeria remains competitive in the evolving global investment environment.
He explained that the Commission’s reforms were aimed at creating a forward-looking market structure capable of supporting intelligent investing through faster settlement systems, tokenised securities and deeper derivatives markets.
According to him, the Commission’s seven-pillar capital market infrastructure vision includes plans to achieve T+1 settlement cycles, expand digital assets regulation and build a comprehensive framework for tokenised securities.
The SEC boss said the Commission was also developing governance frameworks for artificial intelligence applications in the capital market to ensure transparency, accountability and investor confidence.
“We are developing AI governance frameworks for capital market participants — frameworks that demand explainability, accountability and algorithmic fairness. An investor in Nigeria deserves to know not only what decisions were made on their behalf, but how those decisions were reached,” he said.
Agama stated that intelligent investing must be inclusive and accessible to ordinary Nigerians, adding that the SEC’s fintech-bank integration strategy targets about 20 million retail investors across the country.
He said technology and data-driven investing tools could democratise access to wealth creation opportunities for small businesses, artisans and low-income earners who had previously been excluded from formal investment systems.
The SEC DG also stressed the importance of collaboration between regulators, financial institutions, fintech firms and investors in building a resilient and technology-driven market ecosystem.
According to him, Nigeria’s capital market reforms and adoption of intelligent investing frameworks would strengthen investor confidence, improve market transparency and position the country as a leading investment destination in Africa.
He added that the Commission was strengthening investor protection through enhanced enforcement mechanisms, financial literacy programmes and the establishment of a dedicated Investor Protection Department.
Agama said, “Confidence is the ultimate asset in a capital market. Every disclosure we enforce, every fraud we prosecute, every investor we educate adds to the stock of market confidence.”
He further noted that Nigeria’s growing role in African capital market integration and digital finance initiatives would help channel long-term investments into infrastructure, gender finance and other critical sectors of the economy.
The SEC DG commended FSDH Merchant Bank for creating a platform for stakeholders to discuss the future of intelligent investing, adding that collaboration and data-sharing among market participants would be critical to building globally competitive financial markets in Nigeria.
The post SEC positions AI, data-driven regulation to attract investments appeared first on Business Today NG.
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