NPF Pensions Limited, the Pension Fund Administrator dedicated to the Nigeria Police Force, has launched a mobile digital application designed to bring pension services directly to police officers across the country, no matter where they are posted.
Speaking at the commissioning of the platform on Wednesday in Abuja, the Acting Managing Director/CEO, Muhammed Dutse, said the app was born out of the practical challenge of reaching officers spread across every corner of Nigeria, where the high cost of transportation makes physical access to services increasingly difficult for both the officers and the organisation.
“Virtually every nook and cranny of this country, you will find a policeman there,” Dutse said. “Delivering services to that point has proven to be very, very difficult for us.” The digital platform, he explained, was the answer-taking pension services directly to officers’ smartphones.
The reception has been swift. Even before the official launch, nearly 30,000 police officers had already enrolled on the platform, a figure Dutse said he expects to grow sharply. NPF Pensions is targeting full nationwide enrolment within two to three months.
The app offers close to 20 service options, including the ability to check Retirement Savings Account (RSA) balances, download account statements, monitor fund performance, view daily unit prices, and review personal biodata.
The platform operates round the clock, meaning officers do not need to wait for business hours to access their information. Data change requests are subject to review in line with National Data Protection Regulation requirements.
On concerns about sustainability and downtime, Dutse said the organisation had budgeted significant resources to keep the platform running, including advance payment of annual subscriptions to ensure the system stays online.
He pointed to a security architecture designed to block unauthorised access, adding that non-customers attempting to probe client data would be automatically locked out.
Beyond the app launch, Dutse addressed the broader issue of pension adequacy that had long affected police officers and civil servants. He noted that contribution rates under the Pension Reform Act were already revised upward once from 7.5% each for employer and employee, to 10% and 8% respectively, but even the revised rates had proven insufficient over time.
A proposal currently before President Bola Tinubu seeks to raise the Federal Government’s contribution for police offers specifically from 10% to 20%, while officers continuing contributing 8%, bringing the combined rate to 28%.
Dutse said if approved, the move could make RSA balance self-sufficient between five to seven years, removing the need for government top-ups to retirees’ pensions.
The Pension Reform Act is currently under review by the National Pension Commission (PenCom), with stakeholders hoping the outcome will produce stronger provisions to address the adequacy gap.
