The National Pension Commission (Pencom), says it will be introducing free health insurance for low income earners, which will be launched in the next two months.
Pencom Director General, Omolola Oloworaran, stated this at a Round Table Discussion with the Trade Union Congress in Lagos.
Oloworaran, who noted that the plan for free health care for Low income earners is in advance stage already, pointed out that President Bola Tinubu gave the directive last year.
She explained that they had to set up a board of trustees to ensure that the governance processes are put in place which is separated from PenCom to ensure that it is run properly.
Miss Oloworaran expressed optimism that the free health insurance cards would be handed over to ordinary Nigerians soon.
“That took a bit of time, now we are in advance stages and we should be able to launch it within now and the next two months and we are hoping that Mr President will be able to do this launch and hand over these health insurance cards to ordinary Nigerians. We are working on it, Oloworaran noted.
The PenCom DG also pointed out the next key thing they will be doing this year, was the minimum pension guarantee for low income earners.
According to Oloworaran President Tinubu ordered that they need to do more for low income earners and people whose pension are patchy.
“Last year, the Federal government started contributing into pension protection fund and declared all the arrears as well.
The President demanded that we must implement a minimum pension for all workers.
For instance, those earning about 20k, that is about to come to an end.
We are working on finding a minimum pension below which nobody will be earning anything less than that pension, we determine as minimum pension, she said.”
The President of Trade Union Congress, Comrade Festus Osifu, stressed that collaboration with PenCom is to synergize, to ensure that retirees utilize their pension well.
“We welcome this kind of synergy because we think that when we sit down on round table like this, we could always find a way to solve difficult issues and promote the rights of Nigerian workers, he pointed out.”
Members of the Trade Union Congress and officials from PenCom attended the bi- annual forum.
Reporting by Ebere Obike