Nigerian retirees with the smallest savings are set to get free medical care and a guaranteed pension floor this month, the Pension Commission (PenCom) announced on Wednesday.
Director General of PenCom, Omolola Oloworaran, while speaking at a PenCom Conference on Tuesday in Abuja, said two major commitments would move from promise to practice during National Pension Week, which runs from October 26 to 30.
The first is PenCare, a retiree health programme that will give eligible low-income retirees essential healthcare at no cost to them. It begins with 30,000 retirees, and the commission plans to extend it to all low-income retirees by next year.
The second is the minimum pension guarantee, a protection that has been in pension law since 2014 but is only now taking effect. It sets a floor below which no eligible retiree under the contributory pension scheme will fall.
Oloworaran described the two measures as part of seven major deliverables in about two years, with two more due within weeks.
She credited President Bola Tinubu, saying he had settled obligations he did not create, approved new benefits where none existed and given retirees certainty in place of delay.
She added that she now believes he is the most supportive president of workers and retirees the country has had.
She said pension assets grew from N20.7 trillion in July 2024 to N31.48 trillion in June 2026, an increase of more than N10.7 trillion in under two years. In the same period, 938,229 Nigerians joined the scheme.
She said the funds are increasingly invested at home, in real assets and in infrastructure.
The Pension Industry Leadership Council has endorsed a first joint infrastructure investment of $250 million, with $200 million from pension fund operators anchoring investors through cash flows over 10 years.
A further $15 million is expected from a government financial institution, and talks are ongoing.
Oloworaran called it a beginning, and said the commitment would grow as sound opportunities emerge.
On compliance, Oloworaran warned employers that deducting pension contributions without remitting them to workers’ retirement savings accounts is a breach of trust and of the law.
She said recoveries from defaulting employers set a record last year and that this year has already passed it, with cumulative recoveries at N36.6 billion as of July 2026.
On September 24, the Pension Industry Leadership Council approved an independent assessment of the maturity of Nigeria’s pension industry against international standards.
PenCom is also developing the Pension Transformation Agenda 2030, which will set priorities and measurable milestones for its reforms.
Last week in Lagos, the commission unveiled the first edition of Pension Protocols, a record of the reforms and decisions shaping the industry.
She urged young Nigerians to start early by knowing their pension fund administrators, reading their statements and asking where their contributions are invested.
She also called on state governments and private employers to follow the federal government’s example by paying fully and widening coverage.
Oloworaran thanked the National Assembly, state governments, pension operators, organised labour, the Nigerian Union of Pensioners and the media, and urged journalists to keep holding the commission accountable.
“The work is not finished,” she said, noting that coverage must widen, compliance must deepen and benefits must grow.
