ATTITUDES TOWARD RETIREMENT AND PRERETIREMENT EDUCATION AMONG NIGERIAN BANK WORKERS

Retirement is viewed as a passage that can result in psychological, physiological, and economic problems among some retirees. Adequate preparation for retirement through preretirement education, as practiced in the Western-European societies, has been found to ease transition into retirement and adjustment in retirement. Preretirement education is a relatively new practice in some organizations in Nigeria; hence, little investigation has been conducted to examine the attitudes of Nigerians toward it. Therefore, this study attempted to investigate the attitudes of Nigerian bankers toward retirement in general and preretirement education in particular. Respondents included senior members (n = 48) and middle-level workers (n = 60). There were more males (79.6%) than females (20.4%). More than half were over 40 years of age. A summary of data based on questionnaire administration reveal that retirement on its own is not as traumatic as generally thought. Respondents looked favorably toward retirement, and identified potential advantages of preretirement education. Therefore, it is recommended that employers consider preretirement education as the rule rather than the exception as currently being practiced in Nigeria.