The Federal Government has cleared N758 billion in inherited pension liabilities dating back to 2007, benefiting 957,045 pension beneficiaries nationwide, the National Pension Commission (PenCom) has said.
PenCom Director-General, Omolola Oloworaran, disclosed this at the 2026 PenCom Media Conference in Lagos, saying the liabilities were settled through an intervention bond.
Oloworaran said the clearance marked a significant step towards resolving longstanding pension obligations inherited across successive administrations.
She said the government had also credited accrued pension rights to the Retirement Savings Accounts of federal employees scheduled to retire up to December 2029.
The credits followed a one-time verification and enrolment exercise designed to address outstanding pension obligations ahead of workers’ retirement.
To prevent a recurrence of pension backlogs, PenCom introduced a Zero Waiting Time Policy aimed at aligning retirement benefit payments with monthly public service salary cycles.
The commission said the policy would help workers transition into retirement without prolonged financial gaps, while benefit processing times had been reduced from as much as 21 months to 48 hours.
PenCom also disclosed that 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 for 2,116 retirees.
The review was accompanied by the payment of N8.7 billion in arrears.
Under the Pension Boost 1.0 initiative, monthly payments to retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme increased from N12.15 billion to N14.83 billion, benefiting more than 241,000 retirees nationwide.
The commission is also planning a Minimum Pension Guarantee and the PenCare healthcare support programme, which is expected to initially provide free healthcare support to 30,000 low-income retirees.
PenCom said it would also expand the Micro Pension Plan to reach more workers in the informal sector, including traders and artisans.
The commission said 93 per cent of Nigeria’s workforce, representing about 84.92 million workers, operates in the informal sector.
However, only 242,690 people were enrolled in the Personal Pension Plan as of July 2026, leaving a coverage gap of 99.71 per cent.
Babatunde Alayande, Director of the Personal Pension Plans Department at PenCom, said the informal sector contributes between 58 per cent and 65 per cent of Nigeria’s gross domestic product, making broader pension coverage critical to retirement security.
He added that women remain disproportionately affected, with 96 per cent of employed women operating in the informal sector.
PenCom said the Personal Pension Plan allows self-employed and informal-sector workers to make daily, weekly or monthly contributions through USSD, mobile money and bank transfers.
The commission has also accredited six pension agents in 2026 to support enrolment and transaction processing as part of efforts to expand pension coverage nationwide.