By Sam Otuonye
PenCom has said it would launch its inaugural National Pension Week, infrastructure fund and deepen capital market engagement within the next three months, to enhance the Commission’s visibility, transparency and better the lives of the retirees.
Speaking on the initiatives on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, the Director General of National Pension Commission (PenCom), Ms. Omolola Olowararan, told the media after the 3rd Pension Industry Leadership Council (PILC) meeting that the preparation to unveil those initiatives had reached advance stages, given a tentative dateline between July and September.
“It’s the first of its kind, and it will be held in September. So preparations have begun, and very soon formal communication will go out so that you’re aware of when this Pension Week initiative will be exactly.”
She explained that the National Pension Week was born out of a perceived gap in pension literacy, awareness and accountability, “so the committee is working on a bunch of initiatives to improve the literacy amongst Nigerians so that people can understand pensions more. And this will help us with accountability and better transparency to contributors, and in addition to that, create more awareness to be able to drive our personal pension plan better.”
Olowararan stated that the Commission has also decided to strengthen its participation in capital markets given that it has the largest pool of passive capital and long-term savings in Nigeria.
“The pension fund industry has the largest pool of passive capital in the country, long-term savings capital. So we need to get more engaged in terms of what is happening in the capital market. And of course, in this meeting we have mapped out the initiatives in terms of how to go about that.”
She also said that the Infrastructure Consortium initiative, which would float the Pension Infrastructure Fund has reached advanced stage for implementation.
The DG laid emphasis on the importance of partnerships and collaboration as bold way to attract critical mass onto different pension schemes, noting that the Commission is engaging market women, transport association, and others to achieve that.
She said that they are also collaborating with ICPC and about engaging the EFCC to recover pension funds withheld by employers, which has already yielded result of N3 billion.
On pension healthcare initiative, Pencare, she said that the Commission has onboarded 13,000 people so far.
