PRE-RETIREMENT PREPARATIONS AMONG STAFF OF THE UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN, NIGERIA

Abstract

Retirement is closely associated with age and length of service worldwide. Studies have shown that retirees experience several problems following retirement in Nigeria. Little is however known about how the staff of University of lbadan (U.I) prepares themselves for these challenges. This study therefore assessed the level of preparation of prospective retirees of the institution. The study was a cross-sectional survey. All the available 200 consenting academic and non-academic stall due for retirement from the services of U.1 by the end 0f 2009 were reached through the Heads of Departments and Units for the study. A validated questionnaire was used to collect data from them. The data were analysed using descriptive and Chi-square statistics. The majority of respondents were males (73.0%) and predominantly Yoruba (75%). The overall mean age of respondents was 59 ±2.4 years. Virtually all (91.5%) were married and the mean number of children born by, them was 5.0±2.0. The participants constituted of 71.4% senior non-academic while the junior non-academic and academic staff accounted for 20.6% and 8.0% respectively. Eighty two percent of the respondents either had a completed or an ongoing building project. This consisted of 75.4% senior non-academic. 160% junior non-academic and 8.6% academic staff (p<0.05). Among the 18.0% without a building project, children's education (33.3%) and inadequate salary (30.6%), constituted the major reasons for inability to do so. The majority of participants had negative attitude to retirement as 67.3% agreed that no amount of preparations can reduce financial problem in retirement. Retirement-related issues of great concern to the respondents included fear of late payment of retirement benefits (82.0%), difficulty in processing retirement benefits (75.0%) and reduced income (56.5%). Seventy-seven percent of the participants had special savings for retirement. Majority of the senior non-academic staff (76.5%) compared to junior non-academic staff (14.4%) and academic staff (9.1%) had special savings (p <0.05). Of those without savings, salary inadequacy (52.3%) topped the list of reasons given by the respondents. Over half (55.0%) of them indicated that they were looking forward to their retirement. Sixty-four percent had not read any literature relating to retirement plans while 45% had not attended any pre-retirement seminar. A large proportion of the senior non-academic staff(59.3%) compared to junior non-academic staff (25.0%) and academic (15.7%) had not attended any pre-retirement seminar (p<0.05). Only non-academic staff expressed concern about late payment of retirement benefits; the gender differentiation of this concern was as follow: males-70.0%; females-30.0%. The prevalence of expression of concerns relating to late payment of retirement benefits by rank was as follow: senior non-academic staff - 55.0% and junior non academic staff 45.05%(p<0.05). There are inadequacies in the level of preparation for retirement among the prospective retirees of the university. Health education strategies such as training and counseling are needed early in service to address the situation.