91.4% of Personal Pension Accounts Remain Unfunded, PenCom Data Shows

Nigeria's Personal Pension Plan (PPP) faces a significant hurdle, with data from the National Pension Commission revealing that a vast majority of registered accounts remain unfunded. As of the first quarter of 2026, the plan had garnered 219,316 registrations. However, only 18,811 of these, representing a mere 8.6%, had active contributions.

This stark figure means that 91.4% of registered accounts, totaling 200,505, are unfunded. This highlights a critical challenge for the PPP: the need to effectively convert registrations into active accounts that receive sustained pension contributions. The plan is specifically designed to bring self-employed individuals and those in the informal sector into the Contributory Pension Scheme.

Despite the low funding rate across the board, there is a positive trend in quarterly contributions. From the fourth quarter of 2025 to the first quarter of 2026, contributions saw a substantial increase of N43.86 million, a rise of 42.46%. This brought the total quarterly contributions to N147.16 million in Q1 2026, up from N103.30 million in the previous quarter. The total contributions accumulated under the PPP since its inception reached N1.66 billion by the first quarter of 2026.