For most Nigerian workers, retirement is imagined as a distant chapter — something that begins when the hair turns grey, the children are grown, and the final payslip arrives. Many avoid the conversation until their 50s, assuming that pensions and steady employment will automatically secure their future.
But that belief is a trap with painful consequences. According to Inyang Sami-Orungbe, a certified retirement life coach with more than 35 years of corporate experience, the biggest threat to a dignified post-work life is not low income, economic instability or the rising cost of living — it is procrastination.
“They believe it is something you start later,” she told Anchor News Online. “The biggest misconception Nigerian workers have, especially young professionals, is procrastination. They think they have time.”
Sami-Orungbe, who now dedicates her career to helping individuals transition confidently into life after work, said this delayed intentionality leaves many hardworking professionals entering retirement confused, financially stressed and unprepared because they failed to plan early enough.
“The truth is this — retirement is not about age. It’s a financial position and a wealth strategy. And if you don’t start building it early, you may arrive at 60 with regrets,” she added.
She has seen the extremes across sectors, from banking to public service: those who earned large salaries for decades but failed to plan, and those who earned far less but started early, invested consistently and retired with dignity and options.
“It’s not about how much you earn; it’s about starting early and being consistent,” she noted.
procrastination, Sami-Orungbe identified a critical awareness gap as another major barrier.
“There is no awareness,” she said, explaining that for many pre-retirees, conversations about post-work life evoke either excitement or fear simply because the topics were never brought to their attention.
“Many people — if their organisations did not involve them in retirement seminars — would know nothing about it and would just plunge into post-work life blindly,” she explained, highlighting a closed mindset that assumes one is merely supposed to “shut down and then begin to enjoy life”.
Three Steps to Secure Your Future Beyond the Pension
For workers in their 20s, 30s and 40s who rely solely on employer pension contributions, Sami-Orungbe offers three non-negotiable steps to take personal responsibility for their future:
- Build a Savings and Investment Culture
- Embrace compounding: Start with small, consistent savings. “It may look small now, but over a long stretch of time, it delivers significant amounts,” she advised.
- Diversify: Don’t depend solely on your salary. Develop valuable skills, start small side ventures and invest intentionally in vehicles such as mutual funds, government bonds or real estate.
- Add voluntary contributions: Boost your mandatory retirement savings through personal pension plan contributions.
- Cultivate Financial Literacy
“Your wealth can’t grow beyond your financial knowledge,” Sami-Orungbe stressed. This includes understanding investments and protecting your long-term plan by maintaining an emergency fund to cushion unexpected shocks.
- Paint Your Retirement Picture
Crucially, she recommended “painting your retirement picture. It is that vision that will guide your financial decisions.” She added that pensions should be the starting point — not the entire plan.
Sami-Orungbe is equally critical of corporate structures that treat retirement planning as a compliance task. According to her, many Nigerian organisations are “doing just the bare minimum” by remitting pensions without a broader well-being framework.
She noted that employees need earlier exposure to retirement lifestyle planning, not just financial contributions made on their behalf.
“Compliance exists, but true retirement readiness support is still weak from employers,” she said. “They have a transactional approach instead of a holistic one.”
To genuinely prepare their workforce, Human Resources departments must shift from merely ticking boxes to supporting comprehensive employee well-being. This includes introducing financial wellness education and retirement lifestyle planning workshops early in an employee’s career, not only in the final months.
Catch-Up Strategies for the Late Starter
What if you are already in your 40s and feel you have missed the boat? Sami-Orungbe assures that the situation is salvageable through aggressive and intentional action:
- Aggressive savings: “Prioritise retirement like a monthly bill. Cut non-essentials and trim excessive expenses.”
- Extra income stream: Build at least one additional source of income to create a financial buffer.
- Invest for growth: You still have a time horizon, so she advises investing for growth, not only safety.
- Reduce high-interest debt: Simplify your lifestyle to free up cash and aggressively pay down high-interest debts.
“Starting late does not mean total failure. It just means you must be more intentional,” she said.
Retirement is a life phase that should not be met blindly, nor should it be defined by struggle. It should be designed deliberately — long before the final payslip arrives. To do this, workers must clearly imagine the lifestyle they hope to live: where they will live, what they will do and what will sustain them financially.
“Time is your biggest investment. The earlier you start, the better you come out at the end, and the more fulfilling your entire journey becomes.”
In a labour market shaped by layoffs, short-term contracts, rising domestic responsibilities and the japa wave, retirement is not something to stumble into — it is something to build. And the building must start now.
