House of Reps passes bill to increase retirement age of health workers to 65

A bill seeking to increase the retirement age of health workers to 65 scales second reading at the House of Representatives on Thursday.

The bill Sponsored by the member representing Agege Federal Constituency, Lagos State, Hameed Adewale, aimed to address the shortage of healthcare professionals in the country.

The Harmonised Retirement Age for Health Workers in Nigeria Bill 2024 was read for the first time by the House on Thursday, October 10, 2024.

Titled, “A Bill for an Act to make provisions for the retirement age for health workers in Nigeria and for related matters,” Adewale in his lead debate argued that increasing the retirement age would retain experienced healthcare workers, allowing them to continue contributing their expertise to the sector.

According to him, “this is particularly important at this time that the healthcare delivery system faces significant challenges especially a shortage of skilled professionals.”

He argued that the compulsory retirement age of 60 and the mandatory 35 years of service, as stipulated in the public service rules, is contributing to the exodus of experienced professionals.

He noted that the problem of exodus among health workers could be addressed through the upward review of the retirement age which he said would be achieved by Bill.

“We have precedence for such measures, as the federal government has previously reviewed upward, the retirement age for certain categories of public servants, including judges, lecturers, and teachers. My respected Colleagues will recall that in May 2021, the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment reached an agreement with stakeholders in the health sector to increase the retirement age for health workers from 60 to 65 years, hence the need to backup the agreement with legislation”, he added.

Clauses two and three of the Bill provide that “Health Workers in Nigeria shall compulsorily retire on attainment of 65 years of age or 40 years of pensionable service, whichever is earlier.”

“Any law or the Public Service Rules requiring a person to retire from the Public Service at 60 years of age or after 35 years of service shall not apply to Health Workers in Nigeria.”

In his contribution, lawmaker representing Eleme/Tai/Oyigbo Federal Constituency, Rivers, Felix Nweke, argued against the proposed legislation, saying it is improper to keep extending service years when we “have young unemployed Nigerians ready to get engaged.

“Every year, our universities churn out graduates. Where are these people going to work,” said.

But a member representing Damboa, Gwoza, Chibok Federal Constituency, Ahmed Jaha, urged his colleagues to support the bill.

According to him, healthcare workers who have reached the age of 60 are likely to leave the country in search of greener pastures abroad.

A member of the All Progressives Congress representing Jibia/Kaita Federal Constituency, Katsina State, Sada Soli, stressed the need for the healthcare sector must be handled with diligence to enable it to avail citizens its enormous benefits

At the end of the debate, the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, who presided over the plenary, referred the proposed legislation to the Committee on Health for further legislative action.