Tinubu to launch minimum pension guarantee and PenCare on November 10
- President Tinubu will launch the Minimum Pension Guarantee and PenCare health programme on November 10.
- PenCom says the guarantee gives the poorest retirees a pension floor after a 12-year delay.
- Analysts welcome the plan but worry about funding, inflation and who will qualify.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will launch two pension projects on November 10: the Minimum Pension Guarantee and PenCare, a health programme for retirees.
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) announced the date at the National Pension Week and summit in Abuja, according to reports by Daily Trust and ThisDay.
The minimum pension guarantee has been in the law since the Pension Reform Act 2014 but was never put into practice. PenCom Director General Omolola Oloworaran said sections 82 and 84 of the Act promised it, and retirees have waited 12 years.
"That promise will not wait another twelve years," she said, according to Daily Trust. She said the guarantee means "old age will no longer mean choosing between medicine and food" for the poorest retirees.
What it means for retirees
Under current PenCom guidelines, a retiree whose Retirement Savings Account (RSA) balance is too small to pay at least one-third of the national minimum wage each month can take the balance as a lump sum or wait for the guarantee to start.
With the minimum wage at ₦70,000, that floor works out to about ₦23,333.33 a month.
The scheme is backed by the Pension Protection Fund, which ThisDay reported recently received a ₦107 billion injection and a ₦758 billion pension bond approval to cover accrued rights and low-balance accounts.
The fund is meant to draw on 1 percent of the federal government's total monthly wage bill, levies from PenCom and pension operators, and investment returns.
Concerns over sustainability
Pension analysts and retirees told ThisDay they welcome the plan but fear it may not last. They point to Nigeria's record of policy reversals and to the government's earlier failure to pay its share into the protection fund, which delayed the launch.
They also warn that the guaranteed amount may not keep up with inflation, and that the scheme is tied to the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS). Traders, farmers and artisans in the informal sector, and workers whose employers failed to remit contributions, may not qualify.
One retiree, Azubuike Ojinnaka, who retired from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), praised the initiative but recalled how an electricity-sector pension adjustment was later reversed by the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission.
He asked the government to make sure the new scheme is sustained.
What happens next: The launch is set for November 10.