PenCom To Start Implementing Minimum Pension Guarantee From October 29

By Sola Alabadan

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) will be in a comfortable position to start implementing the Minimum Pension Guaranteed (MPG) after it must have been launched on October 29.
The Director General of PenCom, Ms. Omolola Oloworaran, who spoke on Tuesday at the 2026 Media Conference organised by the Commission in Lagos, said President Bola Tinubu is expected to officially launch it during the Pension Week slated for October 26 to 30 in Abuja.
While MPG was legally established in Nigeria under Section 71(1) of the Pension Reform Act 2004, it was later re-enacted under Section 84(1) of the Pension Reform Act 2014, but it has remained largely unimplemented for these past 22 years.
The MPG ensures a baseline monthly income for retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), even if their Retirement Savings Account (RSA) balance becomes depleted.
The PenCom boss said MPG would establish where eligible retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme would not fall below, pointing out that no Nigerian should retire into poverty and no Nigerian should retire into ill health.
Similarly, she informed that President Tinubu would also be launching PenCare on the same day.
PenCare is a free pilot healthcare initiative to provide basic medical insurance and support to low-income retirees under Nigeria’s Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).
Meanwhile, PenCom has strengthened its collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), as part of efforts to pursue unremitted pension contributions in the country.
Ms. Oloworaran disclosed that PenCom has so far to recovered N36.6 billion in unremitted pension contributions from defaulting employers, assuring that PenCom would hold employers accountable for pension deductions not credited to workers’ Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs).
The Director-General said the latest recovery represented an improvement over the previous record, reflecting what she described as stronger enforcement of employers’ pension obligations.
She maintained that PenCom would continue to trace outstanding contributions, recover the funds and ensure that employers responsible for delays in remitting workers’ pension deductions are held accountable.
She said “We will find what is owed, we will recover it and we will hold those responsible for every delay in pension remittances to account”.
The PenCom boss therefore warned employers against the practice of deducting pension contributions from workers’ salaries without transferring the funds to their RSAs.
The PenCom DG stressed that “A deduction on a payslip that does not reach a Retirement Savings Account is a breach of trust and a breach of the law”.