According to Punch, The Federal Government has initiated a process to compute the accrued pension of serving federal civil servants, in a bid to fast-track the payment of retirees' entitlements. This move is in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and affects employees who were employed on or before June 30, 2024.
According to a memo from the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, the computation aims to enable the government to plan ahead for the early release of retirees' entitlements. The move is seen as a step towards addressing the delay in pension payments, which has been a persistent issue.
However, the Federal Government has failed to release funds for accrued pension rights in the first half of 2024, despite budgetary provisions. The government's indebtedness to retirees on accrued pension rights is estimated at N230 billion, sparking calls from pensioner groups to boycott investing pension assets in government securities.
The National Pension Commission reported that the FG released N100.2 billion for accrued rights in 2021 and N14.92 billion in March 2022, but no payments have been made since February 2023. The government's failure to implement its policy on pension reviews under the Contributory Pension Scheme has also been a longstanding issue.