Nigerians in informal sector can now save pensions through POS – Oloworaran

The Director General of the National Pension Commission, Omolola Oloworaran, said Nigerians in the informal sector can now save for their retirement through Point of Sale terminals operated by Fintech.

Oloworaran disclosed this in an event in Abuja on Monday, noting that the move is to boost the penetration of pensions in the country’s informal sector, which currently stands at 0.25 percent.

According to her, the Commission accredited its first pension agent, Awabah, to boost financial inclusion and help capture the majority of Nigerians in the informal sector into the country’s pension ecosystem.

“What we should expect is pension penetration.

Coverage at the moment in the informal sector is 0.25 percent, rounded down to 0 percent, so essentially we are not doing anything in this area.

The Nigerian economy is also an informal economy. It means that almost everybody is yet to be covered.
“It is for them to take pensions to the street and everywhere in Nigeria to make sure that no Nigerian is left behind in retirement savings.

“What it means is that the informal sector can contribute their pension with mobile phones. It is convenient and seamless,” she said.

On his part, Tuji Andrews, the Co-founder of Awabah, said the goal of the fintech is to ensure that the vast majority of Nigerians are pensionable.

“Our goal is to drive personal pension penetration in Nigeria.” “What we are trying to do is that Nigerians can approach any POS to pay for their personal pension. We want to make it for Nigerians to make their monthly pension contributions,” he said.