The Federal Government’s efforts to safeguard retirees’ quality of life is a significant step forward. To achieve this, they’ll need to address key challenges retirees face in Nigeria, including delayed payment of gratuities and pensions, lack of social security policies, and rapid physical health decline .
Ibrahim Dasuki, Director General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, emphasized the importance of ensuring that the quality of life for prospective retirees doesn’t decline after active public service. This statement was made during the 2024 pre-retirement training for retired and prospective retirees of federal parastatals in Kano.
Ibrahim Dasuki, Director General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, emphasized the importance of ensuring that the quality of life for prospective retirees doesn’t decline after active public service. This statement was made during the 2024 pre-retirement training for retired and prospective retirees of federal parastatals in Kano.
Retirement in Nigeria comes with its own set of challenges, including low levels of income and savings, huge family and social responsibilities, inadequate access to medical facilities, and lack of social security systems . To address these issues, effective retirement planning is crucial. This involves identifying financial needs during retirement, estimating expected income, and planning for housing and healthcare.
Key Considerations for Retirement Planning:
- Duration of Retirement: Consider your outlook, personal circumstances, and financial resources when planning for retirement.
- Financial Needs: Gauge your family responsibilities, state of health, and expected life expectancy to determine your financial needs.
- Expected Income: Consider income from investments, pensions, and retirement benefits.
- Housing and Healthcare: Plan for owning a home and accessing medical facilities during retirement.
By addressing these challenges and providing support, the government can help ensure that retirees maintain a good quality of life after active public service .
Government in its wisdom thought it wise to impact on them some basic knowledge on how to go about their normal life in retirement and how they will properly utilize their retirement benefits. Due to the immense benefits derived from the first edition, the training has been institutionalized and is being conducted by the Bureau annually on retirees from Federal Parastatals.
“We expect that at the end of this programme, participants would have learnt new thinking that would equip them to form a pool of knowledge and experience that could be easily tapped, thus forming part of the move towards the attainment of sustainable life in retirement in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Present Administration.
“The materials for the training have been prepared in book form with two volumes: Handbook and Workbook. The Handbook has been designed in a way that it could serve as a reference document. Participants are therefore advised to make maximum use of it, both during the programme and as source material in the future.
We have virtually picked 110 agencies now and what we have is less than 10 per cent of prospective retirees and those who have retired that we are going to cover in this test trial,” Dasuki added.
The BPSR Director General however, urged the participants to put all they have learnt into practice to ensure that they surmount every obstacle that may come their way while contributing to the growth and development of the nation.
