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From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The National Pension Commission (PenCom), said it has approved a massive upward review of pensions for 2,116 retirees under the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), resulting in a 1,173 per cent increase in total monthly pension payouts.
With the review, the combined monthly pension paid to the affected retirees jumped from N12.56 million to N159.95 million, marking the first pension increase for NSITF retirees in 21 years.
In addition to the enhanced monthly payments, PenCom said it has also approved and paid N8.70 billion in pension arrears to the retirees, with the average beneficiary receiving about N3 million.
According to a statement issued by the Commission on Tuesday, the landmark approval was granted by the Director-General of PenCom, Ms. Omolola Oloworaran, and is being hailed as another major step in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment to improving the welfare of Nigerian retirees.
The statement read in parts, “In a particular instance, an NSITF retiree’s monthly pension was enhanced from about N18,000 to a whopping N206,000. In addition, the retiree was paid over N8 million as pension arrears.
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The enhancement was supported by the significant growth of the NSITF Fund, which grew from N54 billion at the point of transfer in 2005 to N195 billion as of December 2025. “This growth reflects prudent fund management under the strict supervision of PenComand provided the financial headroom necessary to implement the long-overdue review while safeguarding the Scheme’s sustainability.
“The NSITF was established in 1993 as the successor to the National Provident Fund (NPF), managing pension benefits for private sector employees prior to the introduction of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) under the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2004. Following the reform, pension assets under the defunct NSITF Scheme were transferred to TrustfundPensions Limited, which was mandated to manage the Scheme’s assets and administer benefits to existing and deferred pensioners.
Section 39(3) of the PRA 2014, together with Section 173(3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, mandates periodic pension reviews at least every five years or in line with Federal Civil Service salary reviews. Furthermore, the NSITF Benefits Payment Policy provides that the minimum retirement pension should not be less than 80% of the prevailing National Minimum Wage.
Despite these provisions, the last review of NSITF pensions occurred in 2005.
“In response to this prolonged non-compliance, PenCom invoked Section 53 of the PRA 2014, which requires that benefits under the NSITF Scheme be administered in accordance with the Scheme’s governing terms. PenCom consequently directed Trustfund Pensions Limited to submit a comprehensive proposal for pension enhancement.
“So far, payments have been made to verified NSITF retirees. To ease the burden associated with pension verification exercises, PenCom approved the deployment of the “VerifyMe” digital solution for automated revalidation of NSITF pensioners. This initiative eliminated the rigours of physical verification requirements and thereby improving service efficiency for the senior citizens.”
