FG sets N52,500 minimum monthly pension for 173,209 retirees

Eligible retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme who receive less than N52,500 a month will be raised to that amount, after President Bola Tinubu launched the Minimum Pension Guarantee in Abuja on Tuesday.

PenCom Director-General Omolola Oloworaran said 173,209 retirees qualify: 54 per cent from the private sector, 34 per cent from federal service and 12 per cent from state employment. She said an actuary had validated the amount and that it would be reviewed. Senate President Godswill Akpabio represented Tinubu at the ceremony at the Presidential Villa.

The guarantee was written into the Pension Reform Act in 2004 and kept in the 2014 law, but was never put into effect. More than 65 per cent of private-sector retirees now receive less than N52,500 a month, Oloworaran said.

“From this day, there is a floor beneath the Nigerian retiree,” Tinubu said in the speech. He urged future governments to keep it: “Raise it. But never remove the floor.”

Oloworaran said the Pension Protection Fund holds more than N400 billion to pay for the guarantee. Speaking after the launch, she said states must contribute to the fund before their retirees can benefit, and that PenCom was working out how they would do so, Vanguard reported.

Tinubu also launched PenCare, a healthcare plan funded by the pension industry that gives low-income retirees essential care without charge. Oloworaran said the industry had put more than N7 billion into it and paid premiums for nearly 30,000 retirees.

Tinubu said beneficiaries would receive access cards in the coming months, while Oloworaran said retirees without a card could ask their pension fund administrator for one from Tuesday. In an October circular, PenCom told administrators to ask retirees who choose programmed withdrawal for consent to enrol them.

Tinubu said the government had issued a N758 billion bond to clear pension arrears and approved a N32,000 monthly consequential adjustment for affected federal pensioners.

PenCom had planned a November launch for both schemes. Oloworaran said the commission would next work with states on paying into the protection fund, and plans to extend pension cover to traders, artisans and farmers.

Sources: National Pension Commission circular on PenCare enrolment; Punch; Vanguard