Workers below 40 years under the Contributory Pension Scheme rose from 73 per cent at the end of 2021 to 86.4 per cent by end of the first quarter of 2022.
The National Pension Commission disclosed this in its quarterly report on ‘Age and Gender Distribution’ report for Q1, 2022.
According to PenCom, this showed that the CPS had an increasing sustainability level.
The report also showed that male contributors dominated the Retirement Savings Account holders’ list.
It stated that, “Analysis of new registrations on the CPS for the quarter ended 31 March 2022 showed that 86.4 per cent were below the age of 40 years.
“This points to the increasing sustainability of the CPS, as the younger generation are actively being enlisted into the scheme.
“Regarding gender distribution, 66 per cent of those registered during the quarter were male, while 34 per cent were female.”
According to PenCom, 9,621,979 workers had Retirement Savings Accounts during the period under review.
The figures showed that 3.5 million workers were less than 30 years; 3.35 million were between 30 and 39 years; 1.79 million were between 40 and 49 years; 709,748 were between 50 and 59 years; 65,136 were between 60 and 65 years, while 27,632 were above 65 years.
Director, Centre for Pension Rights Advocacy, Ivor Takor, said organisations planned for its employees’ old age by putting pension schemes in place for them.
“Pension is a retirement plan that provides monthly income in retirement,” he said.
The Pension Reform Act, he said, introduced measures aimed at developing a system that was sustainable and had the capacity to achieve the ultimate goal of providing a stable, predictable and adequate source of retirement income for each worker in the country.
On safety of the pension funds, the Pension Funds Operators Association of Nigeria said the Contributory Pension Scheme, which Nigeria currently practices, had inbuilt checks and balances embedded into the system.
It stated that, “The model is such that the Pension Fund Administrators who administer and make investment decisions do not have custody of the funds. The custody of all the pension funds are held with separate and independent entities – the Pension fund Custodians.
