The National Pension Commission has proposed raising pension contributions under the Contributory Pension Scheme from 10 percent to 15 percent during the period of service, as part of a broader review of the Pension Reform Act aimed at addressing chronic shortfalls in retirement benefits that have made the scheme a source of discontent among police officers and other public service retirees.
Acting Managing Director of NPF Pensions Limited Muhammad Dutse, speaking in Abuja, said the commission had already submitted the proposal to the federal government and that its implementation, once approved, would significantly strengthen retirement savings account balances over time, reducing or eliminating the need for government top-up payments to make pensioners’ incomes livable.
He said the problem had a clear history. When the Pension Reform Act was first implemented with contributions set at 7.5 percent of salary, actuarial assessments later found the rate insufficient to fund sustainable retirement income. Contributions were subsequently raised to 10 percent, but further evaluation over the following decade revealed that even the adjusted rate fell short of the standard required, leaving retirees with benefits inadequate to meet their basic living needs. The new proposal to raise the rate to 15 percent was designed to break that cycle.
Dutse was clear that the problem was compounded by salary levels. Pension, he said, was fundamentally a function of earnings during service, meaning that workers paid poorly throughout their careers would inevitably retire on inadequate pensions regardless of the contribution rate, pointing to a structural issue that the pension reform alone could not fully resolve without accompanying improvements to public sector remuneration.
NPF Pensions simultaneously launched a WhatsApp-based service platform designed to improve access to pension information for retirees and serving personnel across the country, allowing users to check retirement savings account balances, download account statements, monitor fund performance, access daily unit prices, and stay informed about their pension status without visiting a physical office.
Dutse said the platform was selected because of WhatsApp’s widespread use, reliability, and continuous improvement since its acquisition by Meta, and that strict security architecture had been built into the system to ensure that confidential account information was accessible only to authorized users. He said the initiative was part of a wider push to modernize pension service delivery and bring the commission into direct and accessible contact with beneficiaries spread across every part of Nigeria.
