After more than two decades of stagnation, thousands of retirees under the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) are finally seeing a major improvement in their pension benefits, following decisive regulatory intervention by the National Pension Commission (PenCom).

This was revealed in a statement by the commission.

The commission also approved a sweeping upward review of pensions for 2,116 NSITF retirees, raising total monthly payouts from N12.56 million to N159.95 million – an increase of 1,173 per cent.

The approval also triggered the payment of N8.7 billion in pension arrears, ending years of income erosion for beneficiaries whose pensions had remained unchanged since 2005.

The intervention represents the first pension review for NSITF retirees in 21 years and signals a tougher enforcement stance by PenCom on compliance with pension laws and constitutional guarantees for retirees.

Beyond the monthly enhancement, each affected retiree received an average of about N3 million in arrears.

In one notable case, a beneficiary’s monthly pension rose from about N18, 000 to N206,000, besides arrears that exceeded N8 million, illustrating the scale of the adjustment required to restore benefit values.

PenCom said the review was made possible by the growth of the NSITF Fund, which expanded from N54 billion at the point of asset transfer in 2005 to N195 billion as of December 2025.

The commission noted that prudent fund management and regulatory oversight created sufficient financial headroom to implement the long-overdue adjustment without compromising the scheme’s sustainability.

The NSITF scheme predates the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) introduced under the Pension Reform Act (PRA) 2004 and caters to private-sector employees who retired before the CPS era.

Following pension reforms, the NSITF assets were transferred to Trustfund Pensions Limited for administration on behalf of existing and deferred pensioners.