Tinubu launches N52,500 minimum pension and free healthcare for retirees

President Bola Tinubu has launched the Minimum Pension Guarantee, setting N52,500 as the lowest monthly pension for eligible retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme and ending a delay of about 22 years.

The president, represented by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, announced the scheme on Tuesday in Abuja at the launch of the Presidential Pension Security Initiative. It takes immediate effect and covers more than 170,000 retirees, Leadership reported, and will be administered by the National Pension Commission (PenCom).

The guarantee is provided for in Section 71 of the Pension Reform Act 2004, and Sections 82 and 84 of the 2014 Act set up a fund to finance it, but it was never implemented. Tinubu said it is a statutory right of workers and not a discretionary benefit, and told future administrations they may raise the floor but must not remove it. "Raise it, but never remove the floor," he said.

He also launched PenCare, a healthcare programme that gives low-income retirees free access to essential medical services. The initiative is being funded by the pension industry, according to Daily Trust.

PenCom Director-General Omolola Oloworaran said some retirees had been receiving monthly pensions of just over N20,000 before the new minimum. She said the Federal Government has set up a N400bn Pension Protection Fund to finance the scheme for retirees whose payments fall below the approved threshold.

Oloworaran said the N52,500 figure came from an actuarial assessment and will be reviewed from time to time. "The figure was not plucked from the air; it has been validated by an actuary, and it is subject to review. And it is funded," she said. She added that the guarantee stayed on paper for 22 years because successive administrations did not provide dedicated funding for it.

Oloworaran also explained who is covered. The guarantee applies to both public and private sector retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme, she said, and is not only for former federal government employees. Every eligible retiree earning below N52,500 will be brought up to that amount. "If you are within the CPS, you will get it," she said.

Tinubu described the guarantee as an entitlement and not a favour. "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," he said, according to Leadership.