PenCom says pension assets rose 51% to N31.4trn in two years

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) says Nigeria’s pension assets rose to N31.48 trillion in the last two years.

This increase was said to be supported by the recovery of over N36 billion in unremitted pension contributions within the same period.

Omolola Oloworaran, director-general of PenCom, spoke on the commission’s milestones on Tuesday during a State House briefing marking her second year in office.

Oloworaran said pension assets increased from N20.79 trillion in 2024 to N31.48 trillion, representing an increase of more than N10.7 trillion (or 51 percent) in two years.

“Pension assets have grown from N20.79 trillion to N31.48 trillion–more than N10.7 trillion in new retirement wealth, a fifty-one percent increase, in just two years,” she said.

The PenCom DG attributed the growth to renewed confidence in the contributory pension scheme (CPS), adding that 938,229 Nigerians joined the scheme during the period.

“Let me say plainly what those numbers mean: confidence is back,” she said.

Oloworaran said aggregate monthly pension payouts rose by 22 percent from N12.2 billion to N14.9 billion every month.

She said the N32,000 monthly consequential adjustment added to the pension of “every eligible retiree of treasury-funded MDAs who retired on or before 29th of July 2024”

“This covers over 100,000 pensioners,” Oloworaran said.

“NSITF pensioners who waited for 20 years for a review on pensions anchored on the N18,000 minimum wage of year 2000 now get N206,000 every month – an increase of more than 1000% with all arrears paid in full.”

Oloworaran also said the commission strengthened compliance by ensuring employers remit workers’ pension deductions into their retirement savings accounts (RSAs).

“Compliance has risen by twenty-eight percent. And recoveries of unremitted contributions have significantly increased: over thirty-six billion naira recovered in the last two years, against twenty-eight billion in all the years before,” she said.

Oloworaran said PenCom now works with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to strengthen enforcement.

The director-general said a presidential executive order to deepen pension compliance across the ecosystem is being finalised.

The PenCom executive noted that the commission also introduced the minimum pension guarantee and PenCare, a healthcare initiative for vulnerable retirees, within the next three months as part of efforts to strengthen retirement security.

The commission had, on July 7, 2026, raised the monthly pension income threshold for the PenCare pilot scheme from N70,000 to N150,000 to expand access to free health insurance for low-income retirees under the contributory pension scheme (CPS).