The Director-General of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), Omolola Oloworaran, has revealed alarming statistics regarding informal workers in Nigeria, indicating that over 75 million individuals are likely to retire without any pension or form of retirement savings. This announcement was made during the presentation of a licensed accredited pension agent certificate to Awabah, marking it as the first company accredited under a new pension agent framework initiated by the commission.

Oloworaran highlighted that Nigeria's pension reforms have predominantly favored those in the formal sector, leaving a vast majority of informal workers vulnerable and outside of the pension safety net. This reality becomes particularly poignant when considering that over 90 percent of the Nigerian workforce operates within the informal economy, yet the pension coverage for this demographic is a mere 0.25 percent.

The implications of these statistics are profound, as they suggest that millions of individuals engaged in professions such as market trading, artisan work, farming, transport operations, and small business ownership are retiring without any financial security or savings. This troubling trend raises significant concerns regarding the long-term economic stability for informal workers and underscores the urgent need for reforms that extend pension benefits to encompass all sectors of the workforce.