The Director General of PenCom, Ms Omolola Oloworaran (4th from left) flanked by others shortly after briefing on inauguration of the PILC Thursday, 18th September, 2025.
….As PenCom, PILC Set To Rollout Reforms
By Clement Nwoji, Abuja
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has declared that the Federal government is not indebted to any retiree to date under the Contributory Pension Scheme (PenCom) as all pensioners under the scheme had been paid up to September, 2025.
The Director General of PenCom, Omolola Oloworaran, made this declaration while fielding questions at a news briefing shortly after the inauguration of the Pension Industry Leadership Council (PILC) by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Sen. George Akume, Thursday in Abuja.
She further disclosed that President Bola Tinubu had given approval for the clearing of all outstanding pension liabilities owed to pensioners under the Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS) being managed by the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD).
With these disclosures, the PenCom Director General put to rest any agitations of indebtedness to the retirees, stressing that those who followed the laid down due processes were not being owed.
According to Ms
Oloworaran, “Just going further with that, I will like to tell you today that under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), there is no outstanding pension benefit due to any worker. In fact, you get your benefits now the month that you retire, provided that you follow the right process and you did your enrollment in time, followed all the right processes that were defined for you to be able to get access to your benefits.
“So, under the CPS, the PFAs are not owing anybody, I mean the government is not owing anybody as well. All approved rights are being paid up to September, so we have even paid up to September. So, all those complaints about late payments, and so on, are all in the past.
“And we had no one else to thank but our President who has taken the issues of ordinary Nigerians as priority in everything that he is doing. And has assured that as of today, it will remain like that, we don’t have any liability standing.”
In respect of whether any retiree is being owed under the DBS, she said: “The president had approved the clearing of all outstanding pension liabilities for PTAD as well for those under the defined benefits scheme. I don’t want to make a bold pronunciation. So, I will check with the PTAD immediately after this session just to be sure that people have indeed been paid.
On the newly inaugurated PILC, the PenCom Boss gave insight into the mission and responsibilities of the Council such as setting standards, enforcement of good corporate governance, protection of pension assets and investments in protective products among others.
She said: “The PILC focus will be to expand coverage especially, the informal sector, enforce good governance and standards, channel assets to national development while ensuring contributors interests are paramount, drive innovation products process and of course, strengthen public confidence.
“The PILC will also be providing strategic directives for the industry. Ultimately, as a regulator we will work with the industry to ensure that returns match up with the inflation. And the number of things we are already looking at in order to combat inflation or currency devaluation as the case may be. As I said, there are6 number of reforms coming up.
“Part of the things we are also working on, include working with partners in government to see that these instruments that we can invest in have an effective hedge against currency devaluation and inflation. We are also coming up with the reversed investment regulations as well which essentially increases … to other alternative assets, real assets that can provide a hedge against inflation.”
She explained that the PILC is expected to be a place where there is better coordination in driving the pension regulators’ strategic objectives for the industry even though the Council’s goal may not be combating the inflation effects on pension assets balances.
Such a function of combating the inflation effects, she said would be left to the individual Pension Funds Administrators (PFAs) to manage which is their core mission and responsibility.
“What they are doing as regulators is passing laws and regulations that allow them to optimize returns”, she added.
The PenCom Director General indicated that more reforms in the pension sector will be rolled out in the coming weeks for further development of the sector and the socioeconomic development of the country in general.
Part of the reforms include setting a minimum pension scale when the President had showed interest to be done.
“So if your income is low, by extension your pension is low. But the president is saying we must define a minimum pension. And I’m happy to let you know that the government is coming to the party and contributing their aid to make sure that we have a minimum pension for all Nigerians that at least puts them in a place where they fare better in retirement”, she disclosed.
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