The Federal Government has cleared all inherited pension liabilities dating back to 2007 through a N758bn intervention bond, providing financial relief to 957,045 beneficiaries across the country.
The Director-General of the National Pension Commission, Omolola Oloworaran, disclosed this on Tuesday during her keynote address at the 2026 PenCom Media Conference in Lagos.
The address, titled “From Reform to Reality: Renewed Hope, Pension Security for All Nigerians,” focused on recent reforms and measures aimed at improving pension administration and retirees’ welfare.
Oloworaran said the clearance of the inherited liabilities marked the end of decades of delayed pension obligations passed across successive administrations.
She said, “The Federal Government cleared all inherited pension liabilities, some dating back to 2007. These obligations passed through multiple administrations, but this government chose to settle them. That is statesmanship—a debt paid, not just a promise.”
She added that accrued pension rights for federal employees scheduled to retire up to December 2029 had been credited directly to their Retirement Savings Accounts following a one-time verification and enrolment exercise.
To prevent the accumulation of future pension backlogs, PenCom introduced a Zero Waiting Time Policy aimed at aligning retirement benefits with monthly public service salary cycles.
The commission also said the turnaround time for processing pension benefits had been reduced from as much as 21 months to 48 hours.
As part of measures to improve retirees’ welfare, PenCom said a 21-year review of payments to retirees of the defunct Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund resulted in an average 1,173 per cent increase in payments for 2,116 retirees, alongside the settlement of N8.7bn in arrears.
The commission also disclosed that Pension Boost 1.0 increased monthly disbursements under the Contributory Pension Scheme from N12.15bn to N14.83bn, benefiting more than 241,000 retirees nationwide.
Oloworaran said the true measure of a government’s commitment to its workforce extends beyond how employees are treated while in service to how pension obligations are fulfilled after retirement.
She further announced upcoming welfare initiatives, including the PenCare free healthcare support programme, which will initially target 30,000 low-income retirees.
Other planned measures include the activation of a statutory Minimum Pension Guarantee baseline and the expansion of the Micro Pension Plan to informal-sector traders and artisans through a nationwide agent network.