Togo's cabinet has approved a bill to merge the agencies responsible for public employee pensions and health insurance into a single institution. The bill was approved at a cabinet meeting chaired by Faure Gnassingbé in Lomé on November 6.
The proposed Institut national de sécurité sociale (INSS) would bring together Caisse de retraites du Togo (CRT), which manages pensions for public employees, and Institut national d’assurance maladie (INAM), which administers their health insurance.
The proposed merger aims to make it easier for public employees and retirees to access pension and health insurance services. Under the current system, they must contact different agencies depending on the services they need.
The government also pointed to duplicated administrative functions, operating costs and differences in service quality. The new agency would consolidate services in one place and combine the resources of the two institutions.
The INSS would serve civilian government employees, military personnel, retirees and their eligible dependents. The government says the reform is intended to ensure uninterrupted access to benefits during employment and after retirement.
According to Togo's 2026-2028 budget planning document, the CRT had 40,943 pension beneficiaries in 2024, including retirees and eligible dependents, while INAM covered 509,902 people. Their operating expenses that year totaled CFAF 2 billion and CFAF 4.4 billion, respectively.
The proposed merger comes as Togo continues to implement its universal health insurance program, launched in January 2024. The program is administered by two agencies: INAM, which covers public employees and certain other groups, and Caisse nationale de sécurité sociale (CNSS), which serves private sector workers and other beneficiaries. The CNSS is not part of the proposed merger.
The government has not specified when parliament will consider the bill, when the INSS could begin operating or how the transition would be managed.