… To launche pension plan for informal workers tomorrow

President Muhammadu Buhari will tomorrow in Abuja launch a Micro Pension Plan (MPP) for the 69 million informal sector workers in Nigeria.

This was confirmed in a statement released yesterday by the Head of Corporate Communications of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), Peter Aghahowa.

Aghahowa said the MPP was “part of the initiatives to bring financial inclusion to all working Nigerians.”

The plan, which is an initiative of PenCom, aims at the provision of pension services to self-employed persons in the informal sector and employees of organisations with less than three staff.

Data from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that the informal sector constitutes an estimated 69 million workforce in the country and represents an estimated 88 percent of Nigerian workers that lack pensions and safety nets for their old age.

The statement said the goal of PenCom is to achieve coverage of 30 million people in the informal sector by 2024.

“The formal launch is the official flag off of the Plan and attests to the objective of the current administration to provide ample opportunities for financial inclusion and economic stability for more Nigerians in the informal sector. This initiative gives the self-employed professionals, entertainers, lawyers, doctors, entrepreneurs, artisans, and casual workers opportunity to save for pension,” the statement said.