Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics indicate that the retirement savings account (RSA) membership distribution data for the first three months of 2017 rose slightly to 7,493,590. This are the number of workers that registered under the pension scheme compared to 7,348,028 registered in the last quarter of 2016 out of a total working population of 69,470,901 recorded as at December 2016.
This represents 10.8 per cent of the total working population. NBS said that this is not surprising given the largely informal structure of the Nigerian labour force with about 50 per cent of the current workforce engaged in subsistence agriculture and informal trading. Micro businesses it said account for over 90 per cent of total Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Nigeria.
Further disaggregation of RSA membership reveals that of a total male working population of 36,363,042 only 5,328,035 or 14.65 per cent male workers are registered under the pension scheme as at first quarter of 2017 compared to 5,226,897 or 14.37 per cent registered male workers in the last quarter of 2016.
Similarly, only 2,165,555 or 6.54 per cent out of a total female working population of 33,107,859 are registered under the scheme as at first three months of 2017 compared to 2,121,131 or 6.41 per cent registered female workers in 2016. Accordingly, out of the 7,493,590 RSA members, 71.10 were men and 28.90 per cent were women compared to 71.13 per cent men and 28.87 per cent women in 2016. This can be compared with the gender split of the working population which has 52.3 per cent men and 47.7 per cent women.
