– In what may be described as genuine intention of the federal government to offset the outstanding pension liabilities spanning over two decades, the Federal Government finally secured the approval by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to issue a N758billion bond to clear the liabilities under the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS).

Omolola Oloworaran, the Director-General, National Pension Commission (PenCom), who disclosed this during an interview on NTA News over the weekend, said that retirees would soon be able to enjoy the benefits of their pension increases since 2007.

Oloworaran said that following stakeholders’ meetings with licensed pension fund administrators, the Federal Executive Council earlier this month approved the issuance of a Federal Government bond worth N758billion to settle outstanding pension liabilities owed to retirees under the old Defined Benefit Scheme. 

Wale Edun, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, explained that the approval authorises the Debt Management Office to raise the funds needed to clear the backlog of pension arrears.

The PenCom highlighted that the payment of the pension arrears worth N387.5billion will come from the proceeds of the pension bond.

She said: “This indeed is a significant development in the pension industry. We have N387.5billion, which will be committed to pension increases since 2007. Yes, you heard me right; that was almost two decades ago.

Some pension increases have been pending without the government paying for them, but this government under President Bola Tinubu has taken this issue seriously and will be paying all outstanding pension increases from 2007 to date.

I another development, the National Pension Commission has revealed that 12,241 Retirement Savings Account (RSA) holders from the informal sector have contributed about N967.19million between 2020 and the third quarter of 2024 under the Micro Pension Plan.

This was disclosed in its newly introduced Pension Industry Performance Dashboard, which offers a comprehensive, user-friendly overview of historical vital pension statistics. The Pension Reform Act 2014 expanded coverage of the Contributory Pension Scheme to the self-employed and persons working in organisations with less than three employees.

The Micro Pension Plan launched in 2019 to provide retirement savings for people working in the informal sector accounts for 76.7 per cent of employed Nigerians, highlighting the critical importance of the sector to Nigeria’s economy.

The PenCom’s dashboard revealed that since inception to Q3 2024, the total micro pension registration count stood at 164,031. “Specifically, the number of informal sector workers with funded RSAs was 12,241.

From 2020 to Q3 2024, the number of funded RSA registrations increased by 5,971, and the total amount saved in the RSAs of Micro Pension Participants was N967.19m as of Q3 2024, which represented a growth of N878.07million from the 2020 figure of N89.13million,” it was stated.