Many self-employed Nigerians, including market women, roadside traders, and artisans, face significant challenges in saving for retirement. With incomes fluctuating and household expenses rising, putting money aside consistently for old age can be difficult. As a result, thousands of Nigerians have opened retirement savings accounts but have yet to make contributions. According to the National Pension Commission (PenCom), 219,316 Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs) had been registered under the Personal Pension Plan (PPP) from inception to the first quarter of 2026.
Despite the large number of registered accounts, only 18,811 accounts, representing 8.6 percent, had received contributions. The remaining 200,505 accounts, or 91.4 percent, were unfunded. This exposes one of the biggest challenges facing Nigeria's drive to extend pension coverage beyond the formal workforce: getting people to register is one thing, and getting them to save consistently is another. The figures highlight the tension between preparing for tomorrow and surviving today.
The consequences of low pension savings extend beyond individual households. A larger pool of regular pension contributions would give Nigeria more long-term domestic capital to invest in infrastructure, businesses, and financial markets, while helping more workers build financial security for retirement. Nigeria's pension industry had accumulated N29.52 trillion in assets by the end of the first quarter of 2026. However, this represents only about 6.69 percent of the country's estimated N441.54 trillion gross domestic product.
Nigeria's pension assets-to-GDP ratio of about 6.7 percent compares with approximately 13 percent in Ghana, 6.5 percent in Kenya, 68 percent in South Africa, and about 63 percent for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average. The differences reflect various factors, including levels of formal employment, income, demographics, financial-market depth, and pension structures. However, the figures illustrate the scale that pension savings can reach when large sections of the workforce contribute consistently over many years.
There are signs of progress, however, as PPP contributions rose from N103.30 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 to N147.16 million in the first quarter of 2026. That represents an increase of N43.86 million, or 42.46 percent, in one quarter. Cumulatively, the scheme had generated N1.66 billion in contributions from inception to the first quarter of 2026. However, the size of the contribution base remains small compared with the number of registered accounts.
For a salaried worker, pension deductions can be automatic, but for a trader or market woman, saving may depend on remembering to make a payment after a good day's sales. This makes convenience, flexibility, and sustained engagement critical to expanding personal pensions among informal-sector workers. Kenya offers a useful example of how sustained reforms and higher contributions can deepen pension savings.
Nigeria's challenge is both a household problem and an economic one. For millions of informal workers, the question is how to put something aside for a future they cannot clearly see while meeting expenses that confront them every day. For the pension industry and policymakers, the bigger question is how to make retirement saving flexible enough for irregular incomes while building the discipline needed for long-term accumulation.
Key points
- Only 8.6 percent of registered Personal Pension Plan accounts have received contributions.
- Nigeria's pension assets represent about 6.69 percent of the country's GDP.
- The country had 11.18 million RSA holders against an estimated workforce of about 110 million.
