BY NKECHI NAECHE-ESEZOBOR–The National Pension Commission (PenCom) and Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria, (PenOp) on Thursday said it will commence micro pension awareness campaign within the first quarter of 2022.
The campaign is aimed at enlighten the informal sector of the country, on the need to plan for retirement through micro pension.
The move will also help increase the number of contributors and acceptability under the scheme.
The Managing Director/CEO, Access Pension Fund Custodian, Idu Okwuosa; disclosed this during the 2021 seminar for National Association of Insurance and Pension Correspondents (NAIPCO) in Lagos that a committee has been setup by the Commission and are working with the branding committee of PenOp to ensure the viral campaign commence next year
The initiative, according to her, will be driven via social media, print, electronics, drama but greater attention will be on the social media due to the youth population.
Speaking further, the head, Micro Pension Department of PenCom, Dauda Ahmed, said the scheme presently has over 72,000 contributors since it commenced and that Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) have been mandated by PenCom to develop and forward an annual media campaign plan to drive subscription, to the National Pension Commission (PenCom) for approval on or before 31 January of every year.
He noted that micro pension was designed to cater for organisations which were before now could not participate in the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) because they do not have minimum of three employees or self employed in the informal sector, such as people with small scale business, petty traders, artisans, entrepreneurs among others.
He noted that micro pension was introduced to end old age poverty by assisting people to contribute when they were working so as to have a long term savings which they could fall back on when they become old.
He Reaffirm the commission’s strict regulation and monitoring of the micro pension scheme.
