No Nigerian who has served the nation will be forgotten in retirement, President Bola Tinubu assured, as his administration moves to restore dignity, security and measurable value to the Contributory Pension Scheme.

The president, represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, spoke yesterday at the inaugural National Pension Week Leadership Summit in Abuja, with the theme, “Pensions for All: Building a Secure Future Together.”

To reverse the injustice, however, he approved the N758 billion pension bond to settle accrued pension rights and strengthen the Pension Protection Fund, Akume said.

To this end, the president announced that his administration will honour the Minimum Pension Guarantee provision of the Pension Reform Act 2014, which had never been implemented since enactment over 11 years ago.

He further announced the launch of PenCare, a national retiree wellbeing programme that will begin by giving low-income retirees access to essential healthcare, marking a shift from a system that merely holds savings to one that guarantees a floor of dignity.

Akume said Tinubu views pension as a national obligation, “not a favour granted by government. It is a wage earned, deferred and held in trust. It is a promise, and this administration has resolved that the promise will be kept.”

According to Tinubu, a strong pension system is both a social protection imperative and a strategic pillar of economic transformation, mobilising long-term domestic savings, deepening financial markets and supporting productive investment.

He further charged public and private employers to remit contributions fully and promptly, noting that deducting a worker’s contribution and failing to remit it is not an administrative lapse but a breach of trust.

Meanwhile, in a statement by the Special Adviser to the SGF, Yomi Odunuga, the president challenged Pension Fund Administrators and Custodians to deepen expertise, diversify responsibly, drive down costs and measure success not by assets under management but by what each contributor ultimately receives.

He stressed that while pension assets should help build Nigeria through infrastructure and productive enterprise, national development must never come at the expense of pensioners. Every investment, he said, must pass rigorous tests of risk and return and serve contributors’ best interests.

President Tinubu also directed an aggressive push beyond the formal sector, saying traders, artisans, farmers, transport workers and millions of self-employed Nigerians deserve a realistic pathway to secure old age through the Personal Pension Plan and new distribution channels.