Livelihood And Living Conditions Of Formal Sector Retirees In Lagos State Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined gender differences in retirement livelihood and living conditions of formal sector retirees in Lagos State. The relationship between sources of retirement livelihood arid living conditions of retirees in the public and organized private sector was essentially examined. The study covered retired men and women from three tiers of government -Federal, State and local Government as well as organized private sector retirees. This involved a cross-sectional survey of 1.327 respondents between December, 2006 and May, 2007 chosen through multi-stage systematic sampling technique and surveyed through the use of questionnaire. This was supplemented by in-depth interviews of 20 purposively selected retirees and 8 focus group discussion sections. Quantitative data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) while Content Analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. The results indicate that about two-fifths among retirees (40%) in Lagos State survived on poor pensions of less than NI0, 000 per month. A higher proportion among retirees in the public sector depended more on public pensions than on any other source of livelihood with 31.6% among retired men and 28.1% among retired women earning less than N10, 000 as monthly pensions. A higher proportion among retired women (67.9%) compared to 64% among men had no personal houses, with 46.9% among study population living in rented apartments with poor household facilities. In general organized private sector retirees had access to multiple sources of livelihood and invariably enjoyed better living conditions than their counterparts in the public sector. The study therefore recommends that extensive and staggered pre-retirement training sessions should be organized for all prospective retirees at least two years before retirement while conditions of service in the public sector should be reviewed upward in line with cost of living in the country.