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President Bola Tinubu has officially launched a N52,500 minimum pension guarantee for retirees and PenCare, an initiative designed to address the healthcare needs of low-income retirees.
The development forms part of the Presidential Pension Security Initiatives launched on Tuesday at the State House Banquet Hall, which was attended by Nairametrics.
The initiatives are aimed at strengthening pension security and improving access to healthcare for Nigerian retirees.
Tinubu launches N52,500 minimum pension guarantee
President Tinubu, represented by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, said one of the promises in the pension scheme that remained unfulfilled was the minimum pension guarantee.
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According to him, Section 71 of the Pension Reform Act promised every contributor a guaranteed minimum pension.
He added that Sections 82 and 84 of the Act reinforced that promise and established a fund to finance it. However, for 22 years, these provisions were not implemented.
He highlighted that a law that is never implemented is not a law but a lie with a stamp on it.
- “Today, I dare say that lie ends here today. By the authority vested in me as President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I hereby declare the minimum pension guarantee scheme commences with effect from today,” he said, adding that it would be administered by the National Pension Commission under the Pension Reform Act.
He also launched PenCare, which will be funded by the pension industry.
He explained that PenCare gives low-income retirees access to essential healthcare without charge, adding that the first PenCare health access cards would be distributed to pensioners and beneficiaries immediately.
- “For the first time in our dear history, the Nigerian retiree holds two things at once: an income that cannot fall below the floor, and a card that opens the door of a hospital. That is social security,” he added.
PenCom unveils N400 billion pension protection fund
Earlier, the Director-General of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), Omolola Oloworaran, announced that the minimum pension in Nigeria would be N52,500 monthly.
She explained that while the scheme would be subject to upward reviews, it was already funded.
- “More than N400 billion stands in the Pension Protection Fund—173,209 Nigerians will be eligible,” she said, adding that every beneficiary would begin receiving credit alerts following the launch.
She disclosed that 34% of the retirees were from the federal service, 12% from state services, and 54%—representing more than half—were from the private sector.
She said the Federal Government and the pension industry had contributed to the fund, urging the private sector to also contribute to the Pension Protection Fund.
She also highlighted that states inherited more than N2 trillion in pension liabilities when the current administration began its reforms, but N1.07 trillion had been paid off as of the time of the announcement.
Through PenCare, she revealed that the pension industry had set aside more than N7 billion for the healthcare of low-income retirees.
She described the initiative as a funded and sustainable healthcare scheme.
She further revealed that the President had requested pension industry stakeholders to create sustainable incentives that would bring the informal sector into the scheme, not in the thousands but in tens of millions.
Speaking on behalf of pension industry stakeholders, the Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Tony Elumelu, said the government was making an important statement with the launch of the initiatives.
He said Nigeria should be a country where those who had worked hard, served diligently and contributed to national development could retire with dignity, security and peace of mind.
He commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his administration for recognising that the true measure of a nation’s prosperity and progress was not only how it created wealth but also how it protected its people, particularly the most vulnerable.
According to him, the two initiatives addressed two fundamental concerns of every retiree: access to healthcare and security of income.
What you should know
Pencom had made contributions to the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) mandatory for Nigerian workers, aiming to boost retirement security and ensure a dignified life for retirees.
- This disclosure was made by the Director-General of PenCom, Omolola Oloworaran, during a roundtable discussion with the leadership of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC).
- The Pension Protection Fund, established under the Pension Reform Act of 2014, is designed to provide financial assistance to pensioners with low balances in their Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs).
However, the fund’s impact over the years has been limited due to a lack of sufficient contributions and funding.
