Tinubu unveils N52,500 minimum pension, free healthcare for retirees

…Over 170,000 pensioners to benefit from new retirement income protection

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday introduced N52,500 as minimum pension for retirees, declaring that civil servants would no longer retire into penury and financial insecurity.

He gave the pledge at the launch of the Presidential Pension Security at the State House Banquet Hall in Abuja.

Tinubu, represented at the event by the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, launched PenCare, a free healthcare initiative for low-income retirees, as he maintained that no Nigerian worker who contributed to the nation’s development should be condemned to poverty or denied essential medical treatment in old age.

Tinubu, who cited certain provisions of the Pension Act 2004, expressed disappointment that previous administrations before him failed to enforce statutory obligations to guarantee financial succour for retirees.

He said: “Not one naira paid under that guarantee. Not one retiree given a floor. Not one government that stopped to ask what happens to those pensioners when their hospital bills arrive at home.”

Declaring the scheme operational, President Tinubu said the scheme was not an act of charity but the enforcement of an entitlement already guaranteed under Nigerian legislation. 

“Today, I dare say that lie ends here. By the authority vested in me as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I hereby declare the Minimum Pension Guarantee Scheme commenced with effect from today, to be administered by the National Pension Commission under the Pension Reform Act”.

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“From this day, a floor within the Nigerian retirement system: no one who contributed under the Contributory Pension Scheme will ever be allowed to fall below. Not because this government is generous, but because it is their right.”

Speaking to the significance of the PenCare initiative, Tinubu said it would go a long way in mitigating the high cost of medical treatment, which frequently consumes retirement savings and leaves elderly Nigerians dependent on their families.

“A pension is more than a pay cheque. Ask any Nigerian what finished their father’s pension. It was not food. It was not rent. It was the hospital bill.

“One illness at 68 years can swallow 40 years of service and leave the children to carry the burden thereafter.

“A pension that cannot pay for medicine is not a pension. It is a receipt.”

He further noted that the combination of guaranteed retirement income and healthcare protection is a comprehensive social security system.

“For the first time in Nigerian 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.”

Reacting to the unpleasant trend of non-remittance of deductions from workers’ salaries to the pension scheme, he described the practice as an unacceptable violation of employees’ rights.

“Remit your workers’ contributions. Every naira you hold is stolen from somebody’s old age. It is not your money. “

Earlier in her remarks, Director-General of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), Omolola Oloworaran, disclosed that the Minimum Pension Guarantee Scheme would benefit more than 170,000 eligible retirees currently receiving less than N52,500 monthly.

She told the gathering of top civil servants, retirees and senior government officials that the scheme would cover both public and private sector retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme, stressing that it was not restricted to former federal government employees.

“We are targeting over 170,000. Every eligible retiree earning below N52,500 will be brought up to N52,500. So, everybody, there’s no discrimination. If you are within the CPS, you will get it.”