October 2026

Nigeria: Govt Begins Implementation of New Pension Rates, Payment of Arrears to Military Pensioners

The federal government has begun implementing the newly approved pension rates following the adjustment arising from the new National Minimum Wage. According to a statement by the Public Relations Officer of the Military Pensions Board, Squadron Leader Aliyu Mohammed, the applicable arrears had also been processed and will be paid into the accounts of all eligible pensioners with effect from October 2, 2026. The Board appreciated the patience, understanding and cooperation demonstrated by military pensioners throughout the implementation process. The military said...

September 2026

Ukraine Will Receive $841 Million from the World Bank for Pensions

Ukraine will soon receive $841 million from the World Bank. This money will help offset government expenditures on pension payments. According to him, the funding will be provided as part of the Peace in Ukraine project. The Canadian government will provide guarantees for these funds. “Ukraine will soon receive $841 million in budgetary support from the World Bank, backed by guarantees from the Canadian government,” Koretsky said. The funds received will not be directed directly to individual pension accounts. This...

August 2026

Bequest-Motivated Decumulation of UK Pensions for Non-Domiciled Individuals: A Monte-Carlo and HJB Approach

By Sebastien Hitier We study the optimal decumulation of a UK pension pot for an expatriate holder who is tax-resident in a jurisdiction that does not tax investment income or gifts. Because the pension wrapper offers no ongoing tax shelter to heirs, the holder's sole objective is to minimise the expected present value of lifetime taxes-personal income tax on drawdowns plus inheritance tax at death. We formulate the problem as a stochastic optimal control with Gompertz-Makeham mortality, progressive UK taxation,...

Deaccumulation in India: The Role of Equity, Debt and Annuities in Retirement Income

By Ravi Saraogi & Pushpinder Singh Framework: We adopt a partial annuitisation framework in which a fraction of the retirement corpus is used to purchase an immediate life annuity, while the remainder is retained in a self-managed portfolio. Using a bootstrap Monte Carlo approach with Indian equity, debt and inflation data, we simulate retirement paths across four portfolio allocations, three annuitisation levels (0, 20 and 40 per cent) and four annuity payout rates (6, 7, 8 and 9 per cent)....

July 2026

Ghana. A-G uncovers GH¢7.5 million in illegal pension payments to 4 dead pensioners

A report by the Auditor-General (A-G) has found that four deceased pensioners continued to receive pension benefits long after their deaths, resulting in overpayments totalling GH¢7,494,975.34 between February 2019 and March 2026. The findings, contained in the Report of the Auditor‑General on the Public Accounts of Ghana Ministries, Departments and Other Agencies for the year ended 31 December 2025, identified a serious breach of financial regulations. "We noted that four deceased pensioners were paid a total amount of GH¢7,494,975.34 between February...

April 2026

UK. Annuity rates rise to 7.62% in March

Average annuity rates increased to 7.62 per cent in March, boosting potential retirement income, the Standard Life Annuity Rate Tracker has shown. Annuity pricing improved by 1.46 per cent over the quarter from 7.51 per cent at the end of 2025, as long‑term interest rates remained high. The data showed that a healthy 65-year-old with £100,000 of pension savings could have received an annual income of up to £7,620, representing an extra £3,000 for men and £4,000 for women over a lifetime. Standard...

Kenya. Audit raises red flag over Sh118.5 billion pension payments to ghost retirees

An audit has uncovered persistent irregularities in the pension system, raising fresh concerns over the possibility of ghost pensioners, incomplete records and questionable payments running into billions of shillings. The Auditor General's report covering the financial year ending June 2024 reveals that billions of shillings in pension payments remain under scrutiny due to gaps in records, delayed processing and long-standing reconciliation issues. In her report to Parliament, Gathungu questioned the accuracy of Sh118.55 billion pension payments, which include Sh61.68 billion for...

March 2026

Ghana. Unpaid Tier-2 Pensions: A Silent Crisis Demanding Urgent National Attention

In recent months, a troubling pattern has emerged across Ghana’s pension landscape. One that raises serious questions about accountability, transparency, and the welfare of retirees. Numerous complaints from pensioners, particularly those who retired in 2025, point to persistent non-payment of Tier-2 pension benefits. These are not isolated grievances; they reflect a systemic issue that demands urgent national scrutiny. At the center of these concerns are two key institutions: Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and the National Pensions...

New Retroactive Pension Payments for 37,000 in Greece

Anew round of retroactive pension payments is being implemented in Greece, targeting approximately 37,000 retirees, as the country’s main social security authority (e-EFKA) proceeds with gradual disbursements. The package concerns pending pension recalculations. Although pensions for these beneficiaries had already been recalculated, subsequent corrections and adjustments led to further increases. While the revised higher amounts were paid, the corresponding retroactive sums were not included at the time. These outstanding amounts will now be credited, covering the period from January 1,...

January 2026

Explaining Digital Payments Adoption with Econometrics and Explainable Machine Learning: Cross-Country Evidence from a Global Household Survey

By Saida Hajjaji This paper studies the determinants of individual adoption of digital payments using the Global Findex Database 2025, released by the World Bank and based on nationally representative household surveys conducted in 2024 across 141 economies. We combine a standard econometric approach with explainable machine learning (ML) methods in order to provide both transparent global benchmarks and granular, policy-relevant insights into digital payment behaviours. We first estimate a parsimonious logistic regression model on a broad multi-country sample of 5,189...