The exit benefits scheme for retiring federal civil servants is a landmark intervention, reckons OMOLOLA OLOWORARAN
Think of the teacher who spent three decades shaping young minds, the nurse who worked through countless difficult nights, the civil servant who gave a lifetime to public service. For each of them, retirement should arrive as a season of dignity, security and peace of mind, not as a descent into uncertainty. Nations are judged, in the end, not by how they treat their strongest citizens, but by how they honour those who have spent their working years in service and now depend on society’s promise of care in old age.
It is against this backdrop that the federal government’s recent approval of an Exit Benefits Scheme for retiring Federal Civil Servants stands as one of the most significant social protection measures introduced in recent years.
For the first time since the introduction of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), retiring Federal Government workers will receive an additional retirement benefit equivalent to 100 per cent of their total annual emoluments upon retirement, alongside their accrued pension savings and retirement benefits under the CPS. Effective from 1st January 2026, the scheme applies to officers in treasury funded Ministries, Extra Ministerial Departments and Agencies who have completed at least ten years of service.
