THE JURISPRUDENCE OF OLD AGE INCOME: AN EXAMINATION OF PENSIONS AND GRATUITY IN NIGERIA AND GHANA

Abstract

This paper examined the pensions and gratuity regimes in Nigeria and Ghana, canvassed the position that the abolition of gratuity in Nigeria, first by the Pension Reform Act, 2004, and by the Pension Reform Act, 2014 is socially inappropriate, as a pension scheme without gratuity does not gratify or appreciate the worker for years of meritorious service to fatherland. It is further argued that the Ghanaian three-tier pension regime, though assures of certain benefits, is bureaucratically suffocating, and that the allocation of Social Security Number (instead of a Retirement Savings Account, RSA) upon registration into a pension scheme is misleading. The payment of their gratuities, and pensions has been attended with sundry forms or irregularities in Nigeria. Again, it was discovered that some people feel that the payment of gratuity and a contributory pension scheme are mutually exclusive, but that is not correct. The recommendations made in the paper will help in improving the productivity of workforce. The National Pension Commission (PenCom) needs to be alive to its regulatory obligations. In conducting this research, the paper adopted the comparative analysis approach, and reliance on analysis of texts and statutes