FG promises to pay backlogs as pensioners protest

The Federal Government says it will pay all overdue pension payments, though it has only paid out about a quarter of what was budgeted for 2024. This promise came from Wale Edun, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy when he met with retired workers who were protesting outside the Finance Ministry in Abuja on Tuesday.

According to various media reports, Edun acknowledged to the protesters that out of the N88 billion budgeted for pension payments in 2024, only N22 billion has been paid so far. The retirees, frustrated by payment delays, had blocked the ministry’s main entrance demanding to speak with the minister.

He promised the retirees they would receive the remaining money by year’s end, with payments starting next week. “What has happened is that there is a backlog in terms of contributions, the backlog under the old system and there is a solution,” he explained. He added that a committee working with the Head of Service has met with the Budget Minister to create a plan for handling the backlog.

For a long-term solution, Edun said the government is thinking about raising money through the financial markets to clear all outstanding payments. “In the immediate term, there will be payment for what is under the current budget and we are working, and we will present to Mr President a viable solution using the financial market to take care of the huge backlog under the contributory pension scheme,” he said.

The protesters’ leader, Sylva Nuatawu, who chairs the Nigeria Union of Pensioners Contributory Pension Scheme Sector, asked for pension increases to match the new minimum wage law of 2024. He said they had written many letters to the ministry without getting responses, which led to the protest.

Nuatawu called for the government to pay the N32,000 pension increase to retirees. He pointed out that government workers who retired under the Contributory Pension Scheme since March 2023 (over 20 months ago) haven’t received their retirement benefits. He added that these retirees were left out of three pension increases that other retired public servants received.

The problem is widespread – the total amount of unpaid pensions owed by both federal and state governments has grown to over N193 billion. While some states like Zamfara, Benue, Kaduna, Kano, and Nasarawa have been paying their pension debts, the federal government still owes about N88 billion, and many states together owe more than N105 billion.