Targets 20 million self-employed by 2019
Stories by Amaka Ifeakandu
Lagos
The National Pension Commission, (PenCom), said that it has reached advanced stage of unveiling its Micro Pension (MP) project, an initiative that provides pension coverage to self employed Nigerians.
The initiative covers three strata levels, the low, middle and high income earners, targeting 20 million self employed by 2019. The MP project targets mainly artisans, mechanics, tailors, farmers and other forms of businesses in the informal sector.
Head, Micro Pensions Department, Mr Polycarp Anyanwu who disclosed this at a seminar said the Micro Pension Scheme was an offshoot of the Pension industry 5-year strategic plan to expand the coverage of the Contributing Pension Scheme (CPS) to 20 million contributors by 2019.
He said the informal sector is largely uncovered by any structured pension and represents over 70 per cent of Nigeria’s total working population in the country. He said that some of the peculiarities of the individuals that operate within the Informal Sector inter-alia are: Irregular flow of income, highly mobile and flexible jobs, Lack of permanent work address, Lack of official means of Identification and other documents.
He stated that Section 2(3) of the Pension Reform Act, 2014 extended coverage of the Contributory Pension Scheme to self-employed persons but for micro pension they have breakdown of family support and there was need to avert old age poverty.
He said that some of micro pension features was that it has simplified registration process, flexible frequency of contribution, easy method of contribution remittance. He stated that contributions would be split into two, a smaller percentatage shall be savings and accessible to the contributor while the greater per centage shall be strictly set aside for pension, adding that the same individual portable retirement savings account managed by PFAs and funds kept in custody of the PFCs.
He said that strict regulation of the investment of Micro Pension funds needed to guarantee safety and fair returns on investment.
He said the Commission planned to partner with trade Unions/Associations to assist introduce members to the Scheme for the Pilot phase while media professionals expected to assist to enlighten the public and create awareness of benefits and need for MP.
Apart from targeting that 250,000 contributors would be enroll within 6 months the Commission said it will test ICT technology to ensure adequacy.
