A review of the promises and challenges of the 2004 pension reform in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper uses a descriptive historical method to assess the 2004 pension reform in Nigeria. It examines the promises of the reform vis-à-vis the pre-reform crisis-ridden pension administration in both public and private sectors. The paper underscores some prospects of the new scheme which are mainly in the areas of regulation, third party administration by professional institutions and funding but identifies other challenges such as spread and coverage, slow pace of acceptance by lower tiers of government and corruption. The authors point to the fact that most of the criticisms against the introduction of the scheme are based on economic projections which could be neither here nor there, and, which could be controlled by diversification in pension fund investments. It is underscored that a mandatory contributory pension scheme should be distinguished from poverty relief programme and universal social security benefits to avoid scheme overloading. Above all, there is need for enlightenment directed towards the employees understanding their rights and demanding it from the employers as concerning private sector coverage.