President Bola Tinubu has launched a N52,500 monthly minimum pension guarantee for 173,209 eligible retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme, ending a 22-year delay in implementing the provision of the Pension Reform Act.
The President also inaugurated the Pension Industry Healthcare Plan for Retirees, known as PenCare, which will provide free essential healthcare services to low-income pensioners.
The initiatives were unveiled on Tuesday at the Presidential Pension Security Initiatives ceremony held at the State House Banquet Hall in Abuja. Tinubu was represented at the event by Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
The President said the Minimum Pension Guarantee was first introduced under the Pension Reform Act of 2004 and retained in the 2014 legislation but had remained unimplemented by successive administrations.
He described the initiative as a major step towards protecting retirees from financial hardship, urging future administrations to sustain the policy and improve its benefits.
Tinubu also explained that PenCare would shield vulnerable pensioners from medical expenses that could deplete their retirement savings. Beneficiaries are expected to receive healthcare access cards in the coming months.
The President further disclosed that his administration had issued a N758bn bond to address outstanding pension liabilities and approved a N32,000 monthly consequential adjustment for affected federal pensioners.
Earlier, the Director-General of the National Pension Commission, Omolola Oloworaran, said 173,209 retirees qualified for the minimum pension guarantee, comprising 34 per cent from federal service, 12 per cent from state employment and 54 per cent from the private sector.
She noted that the N52,500 monthly threshold had been validated by an actuary and would be reviewed periodically.
Oloworaran also disclosed that more than N400bn was available in the Pension Protection Fund to finance the scheme, while over 65 per cent of private-sector retirees currently earned below the new minimum pension threshold.
She added that state governments had inherited more than N2tn in pension liabilities, out of which N1.07tn had been settled.
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