Pensioners say meagre monthly payments cannot cover food, rent, education and essential medicines, raising questions about the implementation of Somaliland’s pension system.

HARGEISA (WDN) — After spending decades serving Somaliland’s government, many retired civil servants face a troubling question: how can they survive retirement when their pensions are insufficient to cover even their most basic needs?

For former government employees, retirement can mean losing a meager, regular salary without gaining the financial security that should accompany a lifetime of public service. Some pensioners reportedly receive around $50 a month, leaving them struggling to pay for food, rent, school fees and essential medicines.

The exact payment levels, number of affected retirees and extent of any outstanding arrears require official clarification. Yet the underlying concern is clear: retirement should not condemn people who served the public for decades to poverty and dependence.

Many retirees spent their working lives in ministries, public agencies and other government institutions, contributing their skills and experience to the state. They now expect the government to honour its obligations and provide the pension benefits to which they are entitled.

A government that demands years of service from its employees must also take responsibility for their lives after that service ends.

Retirement Should Not Mean Poverty

For an elderly pensioner, monthly income determines whether there is food on the table, rent can be paid and essential medicines can be purchased. When pension payments fall far below living costs, retirees are forced to depend on relatives, friends and community assistance. Those without reliable family support may face even greater hardship.

The consequences extend beyond pensioners themselves. Many continue to support spouses, grandchildren and other dependants, even as their own incomes decline. For people who spent decades in public service, often without the opportunity to build substantial savings, this can be particularly painful.

Retirement should bring relief from the pressures of employment, not the fear of being unable to afford food or medicine. Pensions must therefore be treated as an essential part of public-sector employment, not as discretionary assistance that retirees should accept regardless of its adequacy.

A Pension Law Raises Questions About Implementation

Somaliland, has established a legal framework for civil-service pensions. In January 2025, President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdillahi Cirro enacted the Pension and Compensation Agency Law, Law No. 108/2024, following its approval by the House of Representatives in December 2024. The legislation provides a framework for retirement and compensation benefits for government employees. The existence of legislation, however, does not guarantee adequate, timely or reliable payments.

Key questions remain: Is the scheme being fully implemented? Are pension entitlements calculated and paid transparently? Are all eligible retirees covered? And are the benefits sufficient to meet basic living costs?

The government should publish clear information on the number of registered pensioners, payment schedules, benefit calculations, funds allocated to the scheme and procedures for resolving complaints. It should also explain how years of service completed before the pension system became operational are recognised.

Retirees should not have to navigate an opaque bureaucracy while waiting for benefits earned through years of public service.

In August 2026, the government announced the recruitment of 1,393 employees to fill positions vacated by retiring public servants. President Cirro reportedly stressed that retirement should not end a worker’s dignity and urged government institutions to cooperate with the Pension and Compensation Authority.

Those commitments establish a standard against which implementation should be judged. The key question is not simply whether a pension agency exists or younger employees are being recruited. It is whether retirees receive the benefits and security to which they are entitled.

Transparency Is Essential to Public Confidence

President Cirro, himself a former civil servant, faces the responsibility of ensuring that the retirement system protects the dignity of those who have served the government.

Critics question the fairness of requiring employees to retire when their pensions may not provide a reasonable living. Some also suspect that replacing experienced officials could create opportunities for political patronage. These allegations have not been independently substantiated and should not be treated as established fact.

Nevertheless, they underline the need for transparent, merit-based retirement and recruitment procedures. The government should explain the criteria for selecting replacement employees, how vacancies are allocated and what safeguards prevent political loyalty from taking precedence over competence.

Retirement can create legitimate opportunities for younger people to enter public service. But renewal of the civil service should not come at the expense of those leaving it. Nor should retirement become a means of removing experienced officials without ensuring their financial security.

Replacing a civil servant may fill a vacancy. It does not settle the government’s obligation to the person who spent a working lifetime creating that vacancy.

A Warning to the Next Generation

The treatment of retirees has implications for Somaliland’s wider public administration. Younger civil servants are watching how their predecessors are treated. If they believe that decades of service will end in financial insecurity, confidence in a long-term public-sector career may weaken.

Inadequate retirement protection can damage morale, institutional loyalty and the incentive to develop professional expertise. Employees who lack confidence in their future pensions may feel compelled to prioritise immediate financial survival over long-term career development.

This is not an accusation against civil servants. It is a warning about the institutional consequences of an unreliable retirement system.

A professional civil service requires more than recruitment and salaries. It depends on predictable career structures, fair promotion, protection from arbitrary political interference and confidence that employees will be treated fairly when their working lives end.

Pension reform is therefore not merely an issue for older workers. It is an investment in the confidence and stability of the entire civil service.

Civil Servants Need an Effective Voice

The difficulties facing pensioners raise a broader question: how can public employees collectively defend their interests when decisions about employment and retirement rest with political authorities?

Serving civil servants could explore lawful ways to organise through an independent professional association or trade union, subject to applicable Somaliland law.

Such a body could advocate for adequate pensions, transparent calculations, timely payments, fair recruitment and protection against political interference. It could document retirees’ experiences, engage the government in formal discussions, propose reforms and seek parliamentary scrutiny of the pension system.

Where legally permitted, petitions, peaceful demonstrations and other forms of collective action could help draw attention to unresolved problems. Any industrial action should comply with applicable law and take account of the public’s dependence on essential services.

The objective should be constructive pressure for a sustainable pension settlement, not disruption for its own sake.

An independent assessment could also establish the cost of providing a reasonable minimum pension, examine the government’s available resources and recommend a financing model that is affordable and sustainable.

The Government Must Turn Commitments into Results

Somaliland’s government should now move beyond declarations of support and demonstrate that its pension system works for those it was designed to protect.

First, publish the facts. The government should disclose the number of pensioners, the range of monthly payments, any outstanding arrears and the financial position of the Pension and Compensation Authority.

Second, assess pension adequacy. Benefits should be measured against the actual cost of basic necessities, including food, housing, utilities and essential medicines. A pension that exists on paper but cannot meet basic needs offers little meaningful security.

Third, explain how the system is financed. The government should clarify how employee contributions and state obligations are accounted for and what safeguards ensure that payments continue reliably.

Fourth, protect pensioners’ rights. Retirees need an accessible complaints process to challenge incorrect calculations, missing employment records, delayed payments or exclusion from the scheme.

Finally, safeguard fair recruitment. Decisions on retirement and replacement appointments should be transparent, professionally administered and protected from partisan political interference.

These steps would benefit both current pensioners and serving employees who need confidence that their own retirement will be secure.

Public Service Must Carry a Promise Beyond Retirement

Somaliland’s retired civil servants are asking for more than sympathy. They want recognition that years of public service should count when they can no longer earn a salary.

If eligible retirees are receiving around $50 a month, as reported, the government must explain how those payments are calculated, whether they comply with the applicable law and what action will ensure that pensioners can meet their basic needs.

President Cirro’s administration has enacted pension legislation and publicly acknowledged its responsibility towards retired workers. The next test is implementation: whether the law translates into dependable, adequate benefits for those who devoted their working lives to public service.

Retirement dignity should not depend on political connections, family wealth or the ability to obtain help from relatives. It should be protected by a fair and functioning public system.

A government’s responsibility to its civil servants does not end when they retire. That is when the promise of a pension is tested most directly.

Somaliland’s retired workers should not have to spend their later years wondering how they will pay for their next meal, buy their medicines or keep a roof over their heads. They gave years of service to the state. They deserve a pension system that honours that service through fairness, transparency and an income sufficient to live with dignity.

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