PenCom Insists On June 2027 Recapitalisation Deadline For Custodians, PFAs

…Says we are not changing our minds

PenCom insists on June 30, 2027 recapitalisation deadline: “We are not changing our minds”

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) has said the June 30, 2027 deadline for pension fund administrators (PFAs) and custodians to complete their recapitalisation will not be extended.

The Director-General of PenCom, Ms Omolola Oloworaran, disclosed this at the National Pension Week Summit in Abuja on Thursday.

She said every PFA and custodian must meet the deadline, adding that the commission would hold operators to higher standards of investment discipline and performance.

“We are not changing our minds,” she said.

Oloworaran said the industry had grown in size but must now grow in strength so that it can protect the savings of millions of Nigerian workers.

“Size is what we have achieved. Strength is what we now demand,” she said.

She told operators to invest with discipline and to match their investments to the time contributors will need their money.

“Invest with discipline. Match how you invest to when Nigerians will need their money,” she said.

The PenCom boss said the recapitalisation exercise was part of wider reforms to ensure that pension funds are managed prudently and earn returns that protect contributors from inflation.

She said the only return that matters to a retiree is the real return, which is when savings earn more than the rise in prices.

“Beating inflation is not an aspiration, it is your job,” she told the operators. “Real returns, year after year, are the difference between a pension that holds up a family and one that lets it fall.”

Oloworaran said pension assets grew from N20.79tn in July 2024 to N31.8tn by the end of August 2026, a rise of about N11tn in just over two years. She added that the growth must now translate into better retirement security, as pension assets are still small compared with the size of the economy.

She said the success of the scheme would not be measured by the size of assets alone.

“The next great reform in Nigeria will not be measured by how much money we manage. It will be measured by how many Nigerians we protect,” she said.

According to her, PenCom is working to close three gaps in the system: coverage, adequacy and compliance. She noted that for every Nigerian inside the scheme, roughly nine more are outside it.

She called on governments, employers, labour unions and industry operators to work with the commission to build a stronger and more inclusive pension system.

On the use of pension funds, she said the money belongs to workers.

“Pension money is not government money. It is the deferred wages of Nigerians,” she said.

Recall that PenCom announced the new capital rules in a circular dated September 26, 2025. Under the circular, PFAs with assets under management (AUM) below N500 billion must hold a minimum capital of N20 billion. Those with AUM above N500 billion must hold N20 billion plus one per cent of the excess over N500 billion.

Pension fund custodians must hold N25 billion plus 0.1 per cent of assets under custody, up from the N2 billion set in 2004.

The commission had first set December 31, 2026 as the compliance date. It later extended the deadline to June 30, 2027 through an addendum issued in November 2025. At the 2025 PenCom Media Conference in Lagos,

Oloworaran dismissed claims that the exercise had been suspended. “Anyone who is not compliant by then will lose their licence,” she said at the time. She added that PFAs that could not meet the requirement on their own should find partners to merge with.

Analysts estimated that the industry needs about N276.8 billion in fresh capital to comply. Some operators have already moved, with Premium Pension and Trustfund Pensions merging, and Verod Capital selling its majority stake in Tangerine APT Pensions in October 2025. The last major recapitalisation, in 2021, raised the PFA minimum to N5 billion and cut the number of operators from 22 to 20 through mergers and acquisitions.