FG Moves To Raise Retirement Age Of Workers To 65

• “A lot of people are coming here to poach and take away people we have trained at very great cost”

The federal government says plans are underway to peg the retirement age of  doctors and health workers at 65 and that of consultants at 70.

If the proposal sails through, that’s an extension of current retirement, which is 60, by five years.

Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, disclosed the development on Tuesday.

He made the disclosure when he spoke at a meeting between the presidential committee on salaries (PSC), relevant federal government stakeholders, health sector professional associations, and trade unions.

The meeting was held to deliberate on the issue of hazard allowance and retirement age for health sector workers in government establishments.

Ngige said the proposal had become imperative to improve the conditions of service of Nigerian health workers and to stem the devastating brain drain in the health sector.

“We have taken their proposal. The government side will firm up its own proposal and we are reconvening June 1, so that we can have an agreed hazard allowance for health workers in Nigeria,” Ngige said.

“We also discussed the issue of retirement age for health workers, being that we want to keep our health workers here in Nigeria.

“A lot of people are coming here to poach and take away people we have trained at very great cost.

“It takes a lot of funds to train a medical doctor, nurse or even a laboratory technologist or physiotherapist. So, we want to retain them here.

He said there were positive signs towards materialisation of the plan, noting that all stakeholders were happy with the proposal.

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“We are making progress. The health workers are happy and we, in the government side are happy also. We need them to keep our health system alive.

“Nobody in government is opposed to the proposal. It is a proposal that is realistic. It is a proposal that we all agreed to last year when COVID-19 erupted.

“Remember that we were even calling back people who are retired. We delayed retirement age by six months for health workers so that we can fight COVID-19 pandemic.

“The pandemic is not yet over. Who knows what will happen tomorrow. We are not praying for any other pandemic but we have to be battle ready at all times, health-wise.”