Nigeria’s pension coverage increased to 9.1 percent of the adult population in 2026 from 7.8 percent in 2023, leaving about nine in every 10 Nigerian adults without any formal pension arrangement, the latest Access to Financial Services in Nigeria survey has revealed.

The 2026 A2F Survey by Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access showed that despite improvements in financial inclusion, pensions remained one of the least-used formal financial products in the country.

Speaking at the official launch of the report in Abuja on Wednesday, the Director-General of the National Pension Commission, Omolola Oloworaran, said the modest improvement highlighted the scale of the retirement security challenge facing Nigeria.

“Pension participation has risen from 7.8 per cent of adults in 2023 to 9.1 per cent in 2026. That progress is real, and it is encouraging. But turn the statistics around. Roughly nine out of every 10 Nigerian adults still stand outside any formal pension arrangement,” she said.

According to Oloworaran, millions of traders, farmers, mechanics, drivers, tailors, hairdressers and workers in the digital economy continue to earn incomes without building adequate financial protection for retirement.

“They work, they earn, they carry this economy. But too many of them are growing older without building any security for the day they can no longer work. That is the great frontier of pension reform,” she added.

The PenCom boss said financial inclusion should extend beyond bank accounts to products that provide long-term security, arguing that pensions connect the income Nigerians earn during their working years with their welfare after retirement.

She said the commission was redesigning pension inclusion through the Personal Pension Plan and called for a dedicated pension inclusion model capable of identifying what would encourage informal-sector workers to save consistently.

Oloworaran also proposed a pension inclusion map combining EFInA’s survey evidence with PenCom’s regulatory and industry data to identify pension gaps according to geography, gender, age, occupation, and income.

“As we roll out the Personal Pension Plan, I invite EFInA to work with PenCom and the industry to test what works, from digital onboarding to accredited pension agent distribution framework, transaction-based savings, matching incentives and behavioural models,” she said.

She stressed that merely opening pension accounts would not solve the problem if workers failed to contribute regularly.

“An account that is open but never funded will not provide dignity in retirement. One true measure of success is whether Nigerians are saving consistently and accumulating enough to live on when they can no longer work,” Oloworaran said.

Presenting the survey findings, EFInA Chief Executive Officer, Foyinsolami Akinjayeju, said pension penetration remained weak across demographic groups despite the broader expansion of financial services.

She said pension coverage stood at about nine per cent nationally, rising to only 12 percent among urban residents and 13 per cent among the richest 60 per cent of the population.

The survey, conducted between April and June 2026 under the supervision of the National Bureau of Statistics, covered 18,679 adults aged 18 and above across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. EFInA said it achieved about 98 percent of its targeted sample of 18,950 respondents.