Nigeria’s Forgotten Elders: How Pension Failures Are Driving Retirees Into Poverty

By STELLA JOHNSON OGBOVOVEH

ON a humid morning in Suleja, 72-year-old Abu (not his real name) counts a few coins beside a pot of watery garri. A former civil servant who gave 35 years to public service, he now survives on an irregular ₦25,000 pension. His story is neither rare nor unique — it reflects the fate of thousands of Nigerian retirees slipping into poverty after years of labouring for a nation that seems to have forgotten them.

Across Nigeria — from Minna to Ibadan, from Kaduna to Abuja — investigations reveal a grim reality: the country’s elderly population is swelling its poverty ranks. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), over 133 million Nigerians are multidimensionally poor, and a significant portion of that figure are pensioners who were once the backbone of the civil service.

Meanwhile, the National Pension Commission (PenCom) boasts of over ₦19 trillion in pension assets, yet only 26% of Nigerian workers have any form of pension or insurance cover. The remaining 74% — mostly informal workers — face old age with no safety net.

Broken System, Broken Promises

The investigation exposes four critical failures perpetuating retirees’ hardship — limited pension coverage, irregular remittances, administrative corruption, and inflation-induced erosion of value.

In the informal sector, millions remain outside the pension net. The government’s Micro Pension Plan launched to address this gap has reached fewer than 100,000 enrollees out of over 80 million workers. Most artisans, traders, and farmers are unaware such a scheme exists.

For those in the formal system, the story is equally bleak. In Niger and Plateau States, civil servants who retired in 2020 are still waiting for gratuities. Some have died waiting. “I sell vegetables to survive,” said Mr. Musa, a retired council worker. “My pension comes once every few months.”

Corruption and Mismanagement

The rot runs deep. Investigations by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in collaboration with PTAD exposed thousands of ghost pensioners siphoning billions in fake payments. The funds meant for genuine retirees are lost in bureaucratic black holes, while real pensioners languish.

Experts point to systemic neglect and lack of automation as root causes. Paper-based records, manual verification, and opaque disbursement channels create loopholes for fraud — a problem compounded by weak state-level compliance.

Inflation and Erosion of Dignity

Even when payments are made, they barely sustain life. With inflation hovering near 30%, the average retiree’s ₦40,000 monthly pension is devoured by food and medicine costs. “I must choose between food and hypertension drugs,” said a 74-year-old teacher in Lagos. “Sometimes, I skip both.”

The health consequences are severe. Many retirees abandon medical care, resorting to herbal remedies. Others depend entirely on struggling children, perpetuating intergenerational poverty.

Policy Illusions and Empty Reforms

The Pension Reform Act of 2014 promised accountability and inclusiveness through a contributory pension scheme. However, many state governments still default on remittances, leaving thousands of workers without benefits upon retirement. On paper, Nigeria’s pension system looks robust; in practice, it’s a shell built on broken promises.

Government officials tout reforms and rising pension assets, but those figures mean little to retirees who go hungry. A PenCom report may show growth in assets, but it doesn’t show the human toll — the hunger, unpaid hospital bills, and despair behind closed doors.

The Cost of Neglect

Nigeria’s neglect of its retirees is not just a moral failure — it’s an economic one. Poor retirees mean reduced consumer spending, higher dependency ratios, and weakened trust in state institutions. Younger workers, seeing the suffering of their elders, avoid formal pension contributions altogether, further threatening the sustainability of the system.

The Way Forward

Experts and stakeholders are calling for urgent, structural reforms:

• Expand the Micro Pension Scheme to reach informal workers through digital platforms and cooperative societies.

• Automate payment systems and use biometric verification to eliminate ghost pensioners.

• Enforce employer compliance and sanction defaulters.

• Index pensions to inflation to protect retirees’ purchasing power.

• Introduce a universal elderly allowance for those outside the formal workforce.

• Subsidize healthcare for retirees under the NHIS, particularly for chronic diseases.

A Nation’s Moral Test

A nation is judged by how it treats its elderly. Nigeria’s retirees — teachers, nurses, farmers, and clerks — once built the foundation of the country’s public institutions. Today, many live in squalor, surviving on the edge of despair.

If the government fails to act decisively, retirement in Nigeria will remain a sentence — not a reward. For Abu and millions like him, the message is simple and haunting: “We worked. We served. We deserve to live — not merely survive.”