“Serving with Honour, Retiring with Dignity”: PenCom and Police Join Forces to Secure Officers’ Future

In a high-level meeting at Force Headquarters, PenCom DG Omolola Oloworaran and IGP Kayode Egbetokun unveil sweeping reforms — from higher pensions to health insurance — aimed at ensuring police officers retire with security and pride.

For years, many retired police officers have faced an unsettling reality — after decades of service, their final salute to the nation often comes with financial uncertainty. The old pension system, plagued by delays and shortfalls, left too many living hand-to-mouth in retirement.
However, change may be on the horizon. This week, hope arrived at the imposing gates of the Force Headquarters in Abuja, as the Director General of the National Pension Commission (PenCom), Ms. Omolola Oloworaran, met with the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, in a bid to rewrite the retirement story for Nigeria’s police officers.

The meeting was more than a formality. It was a call to action.

“Our police officers serve with courage and sacrifice, often in the most difficult and dangerous conditions,” Ms. Oloworaran told the gathering of senior officers. “They deserve to retire with dignity, not despair. The Contributory Pension Scheme was created to prevent the kind of hardship we saw under the old system, and we are determined to make it work better for the men and women who risk their lives every day.”
Flanked by her senior management team and representatives from NPF Pensions Limited — the body responsible for managing police pension assets — Ms. Oloworaran outlined a suite of reforms. These include a dedicated Health Insurance Scheme for retirees, raising monthly pensions to 75% of a police officer’s last salary, expanding the Retirement Resettlement Fund, and overhauling the entire police pension structure to make it more responsive.
She also urged the Federal Government to raise its contribution to police pensions from 10% to 20%, a move she said would give officers a much stronger financial foundation in retirement.

On the growing calls for the police to abandon the Contributory Pension Scheme, the DG was firm but reassuring:
“Leaving the CPS is not the answer. The real solution is fixing what’s broken within it — and we are already doing that. We need patience, trust, and collaboration to make these reforms a reality.”
Her vision extends beyond policing. PenCom is working with the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation to roll out a new Gratuity Scheme in 2026, which will see treasury-funded federal workers receive one year’s total emoluments as a lump-sum at retirement — a guaranteed cushion for life after service.
IGP Egbetokun, seated opposite Ms. Oloworaran in the conference room, responded with an unambiguous show of support.
“The welfare of our officers is a priority I hold dear,” he said. “We have heard the concerns, and we are committed to working side by side with PenCom to resolve them. These reforms could be the game-changer our officers have been waiting for.”
For police officers nearing the end of their careers — and the thousands still in active service — the renewed partnership between PenCom and the Police offers more than just promises. It offers a vision where the men and women in uniform can look to retirement not with anxiety, but with confidence that their years of service will be honoured with security and respect.
It is, as Ms. Oloworaran put it, “about ensuring that those who protect us today can rest well tomorrow.”