President Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced on Thursday that a new minimum pension guarantee of N52,500 per month will be introduced for retirees under Nigeria’s Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), taking effect immediately. The move comes amid widespread complaints that pension payments have failed to keep pace with rising living costs.
The declaration was made during the unveiling of the scheme by the National Pension Commission (PenCom). In the same briefing, Tinubu introduced a complementary healthcare pension initiative, dubbed “PenCare,” which will provide retirees with a card granting access to hospital services.
“For the first time in our dear history, the Nigerian retiree holds two things at once: an income that cannot fall below the floor, and a card that opens the door of a hospital. That is social security,” Tinubu said, emphasizing the dual financial and health‑care support for pensioners.
Omolola Oloworaran, Director‑General of PenCom, said the minimum pension guarantee will be funded through the Pension Protection Fund at an estimated cost of N400 billion, and that 173,309 Nigerians are currently eligible to benefit. She added that the scheme will be reviewed periodically for upward adjustments.
Daily Post Nigeria reported that food inflation reached 19.59 % in September 2026, a level that has eroded the purchasing power of many pensioners and heightened the urgency of the government’s intervention.
President Tinubu, who is positioning himself for a 2027 re‑election bid, presented the pension and health‑care measures as two key social‑security achievements of his administration.
<small>Source: Daily Post Nigeria — read the original story there.</small>
