BY IVO TAKOR
THE NATIONAL Pension Commission (PenCom) held its 2026 Media Conference in Lagos on Tuesday, 6 October 2026, with the theme: “The Impact of President Tinubu’s Pension Sector Interventions on Nigerians.”
The keynote address delivered by the Director-General of PenCom, Ms Omolola Oloworaran, titled: “From Reform to Reality: Renewed Hope, Pension Security for Nigerians,” was more than an account of activities by the Commission. It was a scorecard of some significant interventions by the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the pension sector, particularly as they affect the welfare and dignity of retirees.
For those of us who have been involved in the struggle for pension reform in Nigeria for decades, the importance of some of the developments highlighted by the Director-General cannot be overstated.
Pension is not a favour from government. It is not charity extended to an ageing worker after years of service. It is an earned right. Workers devote the productive years of their lives to the service of government, institutions and society with the legitimate expectation that when their strength diminishes and they leave employment, the system will protect them from destitution.
Unfortunately, Nigeria’s pension history has not always lived up to that expectation.
As the PenCom Director-General rightly recalled, for too long retirees waited months, and sometimes much longer, for benefits they had already earned. Pension liabilities were carried from one administration to another. Behind every unpaid pension obligation was a human being: a retired teacher, nurse, civil servant or other worker who had completed his or her service but was still waiting for the benefits that should provide security in old age.
Some died while waiting. That is why the developments presented at the conference deserve serious attention.
The Director-General described a number of the achievements as historic “firsts.” For the first time, retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme have benefited from a pension increase across the board.
Of particular significance is the intervention concerning pensioners of the defunct Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF). Their pensions had reportedly remained unchanged since 2005. PenCom reviewed the pensions pursuant to the relevant legal framework, resulting in an unprecedented increase of 1,173 per cent.
According to the Director-General, the combined monthly pensions of 2,116 affected NSITF retirees increased from ₦12.56 million to ₦159.95 million, while ₦8.70 billion in arrears has been paid.
These are not insignificant figures. For the affected retirees, however, the real significance is not in percentages and billions of naira. It is in what the increase means for food, medication, transportation, housing and the everyday dignity of old age.
Another landmark intervention is the approval of the ₦758 billion Federal Government Pension Bond to address outstanding pension liabilities, some dating back to 2007. PenCom reported that payments through this intervention have reached 957,045 beneficiaries. Nearly one million Nigerians.
For liabilities that survived successive administrations to be finally confronted is evidence of the political will required to deal with one of the most persistent problems in public sector pension administration.
Equally important is the progress being made in the payment of accrued pension rights.
Under PenCom’s one-time verification and enrolment exercise, accrued rights have reportedly been credited to the Retirement Savings Accounts of enrolled federal employees due to retire up to December 2029. The introduction of the Zero Waiting Time policy is intended to ensure that federal employees begin receiving their retirement benefits as they leave service, rather than first entering another long and uncertain period of waiting.
This is what a pension system should ordinarily achieve. A worker should not move from receiving a salary one month to financial uncertainty the next simply because he or she has retired.
The announcement that retirement benefits which previously took as long as 21 months to approve are now subject to a mandatory 48-hour approval standard for Pension Fund Administrators is another welcome development. If consistently implemented and properly monitored, it represents a significant improvement in service delivery.
The difference between 21 months and 48 hours is not merely administrative efficiency. For a retiree, it can be the difference between anxiety and security.
Another major development highlighted at the conference is the introduction of the Exit Benefit Scheme, which became effective from 1 January 2026.
Under the arrangement, eligible employees of Treasury-funded Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies with at least ten years of qualifying service receive an additional benefit equivalent to 100 per cent of their total annual emolument, in addition to their normal pension benefits.
The first 175 retirees reportedly received approximately ₦1.1 billion under the scheme in August. This initiative deserves commendation.
Retirement after decades of service should not be treated as an administrative exit. It should represent an honourable transition from active service into a period in which the worker can live with dignity.
The government should therefore continue to explore lawful and financially sustainable incentives that recognise long service and improve retirees’ welfare.
Another important dimension of the reforms is the renewed effort to expand pension coverage beyond the formal workplace.
Nigeria’s economy is driven substantially by people working outside conventional salaried employment, traders, artisans, farmers, transport workers, technicians and other self-employed Nigerians.
The use of Accredited Pension Agents to take the Personal Pension Plan into markets, motor parks, farms and workshops is therefore significant. A pension system cannot genuinely claim to be national when millions of economically active citizens remain outside it.
The pension conversation must consequently move beyond public servants and employees of organised private establishments. The trader in the market and the artisan in the workshop will also grow old. They too require income security when they can no longer work at the same pace.
Expanding pension coverage is therefore both a social protection imperative and an economic necessity.
Two other interventions announced for implementation during National Pension Week deserve particular attention.
The first is PenCare, the retiree healthcare programme expected initially to provide essential healthcare at no cost to 30,000 eligible low-income retirees. There is a fundamental connection between pension security and healthcare.
A pension that disappears entirely into medical bills cannot provide meaningful retirement security. Ageing naturally comes with increasing healthcare needs, and a humane retirement system must take this reality into consideration.
The second initiative is the Minimum Pension Guarantee. The importance of establishing a floor below which the pension of an eligible retiree should not fall cannot be overstated. For retirees with relatively small Retirement Savings Account balances, such a guarantee could become an important protection against poverty in old age. Retirement should not be another word for destitution.
The figures presented by PenCom also point to substantial growth within the pension industry.
Pension assets were reported to have increased from ₦20.79 trillion in July 2024 to ₦31.48 trillion in June 2026, representing more than ₦10.7 trillion in additional retirement assets in less than two years. During the same period, 938,229 Nigerians reportedly joined the Contributory Pension Scheme.
The growth of pension assets is encouraging, but we must never lose sight of what those trillions represent. They are workers’ deferred wages. They are the accumulated savings of millions of Nigerians who expect that the money will be available when age eventually removes them from active employment.
Consequently, safety, transparency, prudent investment and the protection of contributors’ interests must remain paramount.
The proposed US$250 million Pension Industry Infrastructure Investment Consortium, comprising a proposed US$200 million commitment from pension fund operators and an additional US$50 million expected from development finance institutions, can potentially demonstrate how pension assets can contribute to national development while generating appropriate returns.
However, one principle must remain inviolable: pension assets exist first and foremost for contributors and retirees. Every investment decision must therefore be subjected to rigorous due diligence, appropriate risk management and the highest standards of fiduciary responsibility.
National development and retirement security can complement each other, but the security of workers’ savings must never be compromised.
One statement by the Director-General should resonate strongly with every trade unionist and workers’ rights advocate: A pension deduction reflected on a worker’s payslip but not remitted into the worker’s Retirement Savings Account is both a breach of trust and a violation of the law.
PenCom disclosed that cumulative recoveries from defaulting employers had reached ₦36.6 billion as of July 2026. This enforcement must continue.
An employer cannot deduct pension contributions from the salary of a worker and then divert or withhold the money. Such conduct jeopardises the worker’s future and undermines confidence in the pension system. Compliance must therefore remain a central pillar of pension reform.
This brings me to what I consider the next major challenge. While we rightly acknowledge the progress being recorded for employees and retirees of the Federal Government, what is happening to workers and retirees in the states and local governments? This question cannot remain at the margins of Nigeria’s pension conversation.
A Nigerian worker does not become less deserving of dignity in retirement simply because his employer is a state government or local government rather than the Federal Government.
A retired teacher who served a state for 35 years has the same human needs as a retired federal civil servant. A local government employee approaching retirement has the same anxiety about income security, healthcare and survival.
There cannot be two standards of dignity in retirement, one for federal retirees and another for workers at the subnational level.
The Director-General invited state governments and private employers to follow the example of the Federal Government by remitting pension contributions faithfully, widening coverage and rewarding long service. That call must be taken seriously.
State governments must recognise that pension liabilities are not optional expenditure to be attended to only when finances are convenient. They represent obligations to people who have already rendered the service for which the benefits are due.
Governors and state pension authorities should therefore examine the reforms being implemented at the federal level and ask themselves some basic questions.
Are pension contributions deducted from workers being remitted promptly?
Are accrued pension rights adequately funded?
How long does a worker wait after retirement before receiving benefits?
Are pensioners receiving amounts capable of providing even a modest standard of living?
Are retirees protected against years of accumulated arrears?
And what institutional mechanisms are being established to ensure that today’s workers do not become tomorrow’s impoverished pensioners?
Local government workers must equally not be forgotten.
The pension reform journey cannot be considered complete if progress is concentrated at the federal level while workers elsewhere continue to face uncertainty at retirement.
One lesson from the developments presented at the 2026 PenCom Media Conference is that pension reform is not achieved by legislation and regulation alone. Political will matters.
The law may provide mechanisms for protecting workers and retirees, but governments must be willing to fund obligations, implement recommendations, enforce compliance and treat pension payments as a priority.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has demonstrated political will in responding to recommendations from PenCom and implementing interventions pursuant to the pension reform framework.
The settlement of inherited liabilities, the review of pensions, the effort to eliminate waiting periods and new initiatives aimed at enhancing retirees’ welfare are steps in the right direction.
Where further financially sustainable incentives can be introduced to improve the welfare of Federal Government retirees, they should be encouraged. But the same political will must increasingly be reflected across the federation.
I approach these developments not only as a human rights lawyer, trade unionist and pension advocate, but also as someone who has been privileged to participate in Nigeria’s pension reform journey from its formative stages.
I served as a member of the Pension Reform Committee chaired by Chief Fola Adeola, whose work culminated in recommendations for the fundamental restructuring of Nigeria’s pension system and the development of the draft legislation that became the Pension Reform Act 2004.
I subsequently served on the inaugural Board of the National Pension Commission, contributing to the institutional development of the regulatory framework that was required to translate pension reform from legislation into a functioning national system.
Eventually, I also retired from the Federal Public Service under the Contributory Pension Scheme.
I have therefore experienced Nigeria’s pension reform from several sides, as a trade unionist representing the interests of workers, as a participant in the reform process, as part of the early institutional development of PenCom, as a pensioner under the system and, today, as an advocate who remains committed to the advancement of pension rights and continuing reform of the sector.
From that perspective, I agree with the central submission of the PenCom Director-General at the conference: these are not merely projections. They are realities that can be measured by benefits paid, liabilities settled and improvements experienced by retirees.
There is progress, and it should be acknowledged. But pension reform is a continuing journey.
The ultimate test of its success will not simply be the size of pension assets or the number of reforms announced. It will be whether the Nigerian worker, federal, state, local government, private sector or informal sector, can look towards retirement without fear.
President Tinubu’s interventions have demonstrated what political will can achieve in improving the welfare of federal retirees. The challenge now is to ensure that this momentum reaches every tier of government.
The next great question in Nigeria’s pension reform journey must therefore be answered:
Until that question receives an equally convincing answer, the work of pension reform remains unfinished.
Comrade Takor is a lawyer, trade unionist and human rights advocate. He is a former National President of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), former National Treasurer of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and immediate past Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Epe Branch.
