Nigeria’s pension regulator is done being polite about employer non-compliance, and it wants organised labour in its corner for the next phase of enforcement.
At a roundtable in Lagos with the leadership of the Trade Union Congress, PenCom Director-General Ms. Omolola Oloworaran signalled a more aggressive posture toward formal sector employers who have failed to provide adequate pension plans for their workers. She was explicit about her intentions: no employer who deducts workers’ pension contributions and fails to remit them to their Retirement Savings Accounts will find a comfortable place to hide.
Oloworaran said the commission plans to use every tool available, including engagement with the TUC, the Nigeria Labour Congress, and anti-corruption agencies like the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, to force compliance. She described employers who pocket deducted contributions as the worst offenders in the system, and said the commission’s goal is to make non-compliance genuinely costly.
The roundtable is part of a broader stakeholder engagement strategy that PenCom says it will institutionalise as a recurring forum. Oloworaran told TUC leaders that the commission achieved stability in the pension system since the Contributory Pension Scheme was introduced in 2004, and that the focus now is on moving from stability to visibility, ensuring that more Nigerians in the formal sector are actively covered and that those who are covered actually benefit when retirement comes.
The commission also flagged its Pension Revolution 2.0 initiative, launched last year and described as the most sweeping reform to the sector since its establishment. The initiative is designed to strengthen welfare provisions and close gaps in coverage that have persisted despite years of regulatory progress.
TUC President Comrade Festus Osifo welcomed the engagement warmly, describing PenCom as one of the most credible institutions in Nigeria’s regulatory landscape. Other TUC executive members present said the transparency they have observed in the commission’s operations gives workers reason to trust that their retirement savings are in responsible hands.
