The National Pension Commission has disclosed that cumulative Retirement Savings Account registrations under the Contributory Pension Scheme increased to 11,183,475 at the end of the first quarter of 2026.
According to PenCom’s Q1 2026 report released on Monday, the number of registered RSAs rose by 143,248 accounts during the three-month period, from 11,040,227 recorded at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025.
Highlighting the stronger pace of account openings during the period, the commission said the 143,248 new registrations recorded in the first quarter represented a significant improvement over the 114,864 accounts opened in the fourth quarter of 2025. It attributed the increase to improved digital onboarding and sustained public sensitisation.
The growth in the number of contributors comes amid a broader expansion in Nigeria’s pension industry, with total pension assets under management now exceeding N30tn.
Established under the Pension Reform Act of 2004 and amended in 2014, the Contributory Pension Scheme replaced the former pay-as-you-go Defined Benefit Scheme.
The CPS was designed to protect retirement savings through a fully funded and privately managed pension system covering employees in both the public and private sectors.
Despite the increase in registrations, active pension membership currently covers only about 12.1 per cent of Nigeria’s estimated 92 million workforce. Industry analysts and the regulator have continued to stress that expanding pension coverage remains a major challenge, particularly within the country’s large informal sector.
To improve pension inclusion, PenCom has continued to promote the Micro Pension Plan, recently rebranded as the Personal Pension Plan, with the aim of bringing more self-employed workers and micro-enterprise operators into the formal pension system.
A breakdown of operators’ performance showed that the five largest Pension Fund Administrators accounted for 54.41 per cent of new RSA registrations during the quarter, down from the 62.11 per cent market share recorded in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers retained its position as the leading PFA, recording 25,024 new RSA registrations, representing 17.47 per cent of total registrations during the quarter.
AccessARM Pension ranked second with a 10.63 per cent share, followed by FCMB Pensions at 10.15 per cent, TangerineAPT Pension at 9.65 per cent and Trustfund Pensions at 6.73 per cent.
PenCom said the changing rankings reflected increasing market dynamism and stronger competition among mid-tier PFAs, with TangerineAPT’s emergence among the top five serving as a notable indication of the shift.
On demographic distribution, women accounted for 44.08 per cent of new pension registrations in the first quarter of 2026, compared with 55.92 per cent for men. PenCom said the figures pointed to a gradual narrowing of the gender gap in pension enrolment, driven by rising female participation in the formal workforce.
The report also showed that contributors below the age of 40 dominated new enrolments, accounting for 75.31 per cent of registrations during the quarter.
According to PenCom, the strong representation of younger contributors is a major structural advantage for the pension system, as many of them have retirement horizons extending beyond 2055.
