64% of Nigerians do not have pension plans – NOI Polls

By: OBODO EJIRO

In confirmation of the results of a detailed report published by BusinessDay Research and Intelligence Unit last year, a survey conducted by NOI Polls has revealed that about 64 percent of Nigerians do not have pension plans. Last year, BusinessDay’s annual pension industry report contained a survey that indicated that few Nigerians have pension plans.

NOI’s report showed that more than half of the Nigerians who currently have pension plans (54% of 36%) are subscribed to the contributory pension schemes for public organisations. It was further revealed that majority of Nigerians who have pension plans (73% of 36%) are satisfied with their current Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), while those who claimed not to be satisfied (27% of 36%) attributed the lack of satisfaction to the non-receipt of updates on their pension accounts.

Similarly, for those who do not have any pension plans, the major reasons cited are: "I am a student" (22%), "I don’t have a job" (21%) and "I don’t know much about pensions" (13%). These are the key findings from the Pension Snap Poll conducted in the week of September 2, 2013.

Respondents to the poll were asked five specific questions. Firstly, in order to ascertain the proportion of Nigerians that have pension plans, respondents were asked: Currently, do you have a pension plan? Findings from this question revealed that overall majority (64%) of Nigerians do not have a pension plan, while 36% indicated they have pension plans.

Analysis based on geo-political zone showed that the South-East and the North-West zones had the highest proportion of Nigerians without pension plans with 68 percent and 67 percent, respectively; the South-West zone (41%) accounted for the highest proportion of respondents that have pension plans.

Secondly, in order to gauge the type of pension plans Nigerians have, respondents that indicted they have pension plans (36% of the total) were asked: What type of pension scheme do you have? Overall, more than half of Nigerians who currently have pension plans (54% of 36%) are subscribed to the contributory pension scheme for public organisations. While 35 percent have the contributory pension scheme for private organisations, it also emerged true that 11 percent obtain their own personal pension independently.

From the geo-political zone standpoint, the South-East (76%) and the North-Central (73%) zones accounted for the highest proportion of respondents that indicated public organisation pension scheme. Also, the South-South (52%) and the South-West (50%) zones had the highest proportion of respondents that indicated private pension scheme, while the North-East (42%) zone had the highest number of people who have personal pension plans.

Source: Businessday