Pre-Retirement Anxieties in Civil Service in Anambra State, Nigeria: Assessment of the Effectiveness of Retirement Planning Workshops Offered by Government Agencies

Abstract

Retirement from active civil service represents a major life transition frequently accompanied by significant psychological, financial, and social anxieties, particularly within the Nigerian public sector context, where pension administration has historically been marked by delays, inconsistent remittance, and administrative inefficiency. This paper assesses pre-retirement anxieties among civil servants in Anambra State and evaluates the effectiveness of retirement planning workshops offered by government agencies as a mitigating intervention. Drawing on role theory and continuity theory of ageing, and a qualitative synthesis of public administration, gerontology, and occupational psychology literature, the paper examines the sources of pre-retirement anxiety, principally financial insecurity linked to pension administration concerns, anticipated loss of occupational identity and social status, and uncertainty about post-retirement health and social support, before turning to an evaluation of existing government-sponsored retirement planning interventions. The paper finds that while retirement planning workshops in Anambra State's civil service generally provide useful procedural information regarding pension documentation and benefit computation, they are frequently under-resourced, delivered too close to the retirement date to allow meaningful behavioural or financial adjustment, and insufficiently attentive to the psychosocial dimensions of retirement anxiety, focusing predominantly on administrative rather than emotional or identity-related preparation. The paper recommends earlier and more sustained workshop scheduling, integration of psychosocial counselling components, and closer alignment between workshop content and the specific pension administration concerns most frequently cited by prospective retirees.