30,000 low-income pensioners will benefit from the pilot phase of a Federal Government healthcare programme to be unveiled in November, Director-General of the National Pension Commission, Omolola Oloworaran disclosed Wednesday at the Senior Citizens Fair organized as part of the National Pension Week 2026 in Abuja.
She said the programme, initially scheduled for launch on Thursday, had been postponed by two weeks due to scheduling challenges but would commence before the end of November.
“We were supposed to launch the PENCARE Health Initiative tomorrow. But due to some problems, we will have to move that by another two weeks. But something I can promise you is that that launch is going to happen in the month of November without any further pushing forward,” she said.
PENCARE is a healthcare initiative designed to provide medical coverage for eligible low-income retirees, reducing their healthcare expenses and improving access to medical services during retirement.
Oloworaran explained that President Bola Tinubu directed the commission in 2025 to develop healthcare support for pensioners, particularly those struggling with medical expenses.
She said the preliminary testing had commenced, with some retirees already accessing services ahead of the broader rollout.
“Some people are already using it because we just want to test the system to see how it will work when we roll out to the 30,000 that will be part of this pilot programme,” she stated.
She also said the initial eligibility age is 60 years, although the commission could consider lowering the threshold as additional funding becomes available.
“For everything we do, we need to factor in sustainability. And that’s why the age has been put as 60. But as we continue to raise funding for PENCARE, if we are able to reduce the age a bit, we will,” she explained.
The PenCom boss also announced that implementation of the minimum pension guarantee was expected to commence in November to address inadequate retirement incomes.
She described the situation where some pensioners received slightly above N20,000 monthly as unacceptable.
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“Some people were earning 20-something thousand. And that is a grave anomaly that should never happen,” she said.
Oloworaran said the pension reforms had resulted in substantial increases for certain categories of retirees, including former employees covered by the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund.
“We had the NSITF pensioners whose pensions went up by over 1,000 per cent. We also have people in the civil service as well whose pensions, some of them my relatives, went up by as high as 67 per cent. And some of them over 100 per cent,” she said.
She attributed the improvements to measures including Pension Boost 1.0 and the N32,000 consequential pension adjustment introduced by the Federal Government.
On outstanding pension liabilities, Oloworaran said the President approved N758bn to address historical obligations, including arrears dating back nearly two decades.
She recalled that some retirees previously waited almost two years to receive their benefits but maintained that the payment process had improved considerably.
“For new retirees who are just retired, they now get paid within 48 hours provided all their documentation is in order,” she disclosed.
The director-general said PenCom would continue strengthening policies and legal frameworks protecting retirees while working with government and labour unions to ensure pensioners benefited from welfare improvements.
She acknowledged that challenges remained despite the reforms and urged retirees to identify shortcomings in the pension system.
“We want you to tell us what is working and what is not working. We want you to tell us where the system is still disappointing you so that we can fix it,” she said.
Oloworaran maintained that pensioners deserved financial security, access to healthcare and opportunities to remain economically active after retirement.
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