The Federal Government has settled the accrued pension rights of enrolled federal workers up to December 2029, ending a 21-month funding shortfall and creating a 41-month surplus, the National Pension Commission has announced.
PenCom Director-General, Omolola Oloworaran, made this known on Wednesday while delivering her keynote address at the 2026 Pension Correspondents Association of Nigeria Conference in Abuja.
Oloworaran, who was represented by the commission’s Head of Corporate Communications, Ibrahim Buwai, said the development marked a major shift from the previous situation in which the government owed 21 months of accrued pension contributions.
“We are moving from a position where we had, where our full pension rights were 21 months in arrears, to where we are today, 41 months in surplus. And 41 months in surplus means that federal government employees who have not yet retired and who have enrolled have had their accrued pension rights paid up to December 2029,” she said
She also announced that the commission had addressed delays in pension disbursement, with retirement benefits now reportedly processed within 48 hours of retirement.
“The issue of delays of payment of pension has now become history, and now pensions are being paid within a maximum of 48 hours from retirement,” she said.
The PenCom chief also highlighted two recent government interventions: the PenCare health insurance scheme and the N52,500 minimum pension guarantee, both launched by President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday.
She said PenCare was designed to ease healthcare expenses for retirees, enabling them to spend a larger portion of their monthly pension payments on other necessities.
According to her, pension operators and PenCom are jointly financing the scheme, which will be overseen by an independent board of trustees chaired by the commission’s pioneer Director-General, Muhammad Ahmad.
On the minimum pension guarantee, Oloworaran explained that eligible retirees whose monthly payments fall below N52,500 would receive an increase to the new threshold. She added that some beneficiaries had already received payment alerts during the programme’s launch.
She further revealed that the Federal Government had approved additional exit benefits amounting to 100 per cent of terminal emoluments for qualified retirees, with the policy taking effect from January 1, 2026.
“The Federal Government has just approved the payment of 100 per cent of terminal emoluments as additional exit benefits,” she said, adding that eligible 2026 retirees who submitted their documents had received payments.
Also speaking at the conference, the Executive Secretary of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate, Tolulope Odunaiya, said PTAD had introduced digital verification procedures and improved life-status checks for pensioners under the Defined Benefits Scheme.
Odunaiya, who was represented by the directorate’s Head of Corporate Communications, Olugbenga Ajayi, said the new system would enable pensioners to complete their verification exercises regardless of their location.
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With the new initiative of this verification without borders, pensioners in the US, in Uganda, in our villages can as well do their verification,” she said.
She also announced that registration had started for PTAD’s planned health insurance scheme ahead of its official launch.
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of the Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria, Anthonia Ifeanyi-Okoro, called for strategic investment of pension funds in critical sectors, including infrastructure, housing, energy and other productive areas.
Ifeanyi-Okoro, represented by Olajumoke Akinwa, said effective deployment of pension assets could support Nigeria’s ambition of building a $1tn economy without exposing contributors’ retirement savings to unnecessary risks.
“Properly channelled into infrastructure, housing, energy, and productive sectors, these funds can help finance the growth we seek, while still protecting the retirement benefits of contributors,” she said.
Similarly, Awabah Chief Executive Officer, Tunji Andrews, announced that the requirements for enrolling in the Personal Pension Plan had been simplified, with the number of registration fields reduced from 25 to four.
He said the adjustment was intended to encourage participation among informal sector workers, while partnerships with Moniepoint and Interswitch had made it possible for contributors to register and make payments through Point of Sale terminals.
“As of today, those fields have been reduced to 4 fields only. Because of that innovation, we’ve been able to put onboarding and payments for PPP on POS terminals,” he said.
Andrews also introduced Awabah’s Pension Oga initiative, which will involve deploying agents to markets and communities to educate informal workers, facilitate their registration and collect pension contributions.
He stressed the need for increased public education to attract more Nigerians to the Personal Pension Plan.
The acting Managing Director of NPF Pensions Limited, Mohammed Dutse, represented by Chukwuma Ohaka, also praised recent progress in pension administration, particularly measures aimed at improving the welfare of retired police officers.
A representative of Citizens Pension Limited, Khayran-Yunusa Aliu, advocated wider financial inclusion through increased participation in the micro-pension scheme.
However, the National President of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Godwin Abumisi, called on the Federal Government to extend the newly approved exit benefits to former workers who retired between 2004 and December 2025.
Abumisi, who was represented by Ahmad Ibrahim-Gazali, also disclosed that N12.3bn had been released for the implementation of the exit-benefit programme.
Earlier, the President of PenCAN, Nana Musa, urged journalists to promote transparency and improve public understanding of pension reforms through factual and responsible reporting.