President Bola Tinubu challenged Nigerians to evaluate his administration by its reforms including bold initiatives in the pension sector rather than campaign promises.
The President stated this on Tuesday while launching a long-delayed minimum-pension guarantee and a healthcare programme for low-income retirees.
The initiatives, unveiled at the State House in Abuja, aim to establish a financial floor for retirees under Nigeria’s Contributory Pension Scheme and to ease the medical costs that often erode retirement savings.
The programme had remained unimplemented for 22 years despite being provided for in pension law.
The Minimum Pension Guarantee, administered by the National Pension Commission (PenCom) takes effect immediately.
It is intended to prevent eligible retirees from falling below a guaranteed monthly income threshold, although officials have not yet detailed all eligibility and payment rules.
President Tinubu, represented by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, said successive governments had failed to enforce a statutory commitment embedded in the Pension Reform Act.
“A law that is never implemented is not a law,” he said. “It is a lie with a stamp on it.”
Under current PenCom guidance, retirees whose retirement-savings balances cannot generate a pension equal to at least one-third of the national minimum wage may receive support under the new framework.
The guarantee is tied to the Contributory Pension Scheme and is not a universal old-age benefit.
The President also introduced PensionCare, a pension-industry-funded health initiative that will provide low-income retirees with access to essential medical services at no charge.
The first benefit cards are expected to be distributed in the coming months.
PenCom said the pension industry has committed more than 7 billion naira to the program, which has already helped finance health-insurance premiums for nearly 30,000 retirees.
“A pension that I cannot use to pay for medicine is not a pension; it is a receipt,” Tinubu said, framing medical expenses as one of the principal threats to retirement security.
President Tinubu said the federal government issued a N758billion bond to settle long-standing pension arrears and strengthen the Pension Protection Fund.
He said the government also approved a N32,000 monthly consequential adjustment for federal pensioners earning below the national minimum wage.
Legacy pensioners under the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund who previously received as little as 18,000 naira a month now receive N206,000, President Tinubu added.
The measures form part of a broader effort to restore confidence in the pension system, which officials say must move beyond managing retirement savings to protecting retirees’ welfare.
The President linked the pension measures to his administration’s wider economic programme, including the removal of petrol subsidies and the unification of foreign-exchange rates.
He argued that resources previously spent on subsidies are now available to states for infrastructure, education, health care and pension liabilities.
Citing a World Bank report published in October, President Tinubu said state revenues rose about 93% in real terms between 2023 and 2025, while the share of state budgets allocated to capital projects increased from 46% to 61%.
He warned opponents against calling for a return to fuel subsidies, saying reversal would reduce state revenues and undermine spending on pensions and public services.
He also challenged former officeholders to present their own records on retiree welfare.
The initiatives arrive as Nigeria’s pension system still excludes most workers. PenCom Director-General Omolola Oloworaran has said that for every Nigerian inside the pension system, nine remain outside it, and the commission is seeking to extend coverage to traders, artisans, farmers, transport workers and other informal-sector workers.
The minimum guarantee will initially benefit 173,209 retirees, supported by a 400 billion naira Pension Protection Fund.
The 52,500 naira minimum pension was set through actuarial assessment and is subject to periodic review.
President Tinubu urged employers to remit pension contributions promptly and encouraged young workers to enroll early.
“Every naira you withhold is stolen from somebody’s old age,” he said.
