Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday rolled out the much anticipated Universal Pension Scheme aiming to bring the country’s all citizens aged above 18 under the pension coverage.

She opened the pension scheme joining a virtual function from her official residence Ganabhaban. The participants and beneficiaries were connected from three districts —Gopalganj, Bagerhat and Rangpur— and the Bangladesh embassy in Saudi Arabia.

Four different packages- Pragati, Surokkha, Samata and Prabashi — out of a total of six planned ones were initially introduced under the universal pension scheme to ensure the lifetime pension facility for the participant citizens.

The Pragati package will cover private job holders, while the Surokkha is designed for self-employed persons, the Samata for the low-income people and the Prabashi package for the expatriate Bangladeshis. The two remaining packages will be launched later.

Any citizen aged above 18 can participate in the universal pension scheme to get the pension facility during the retirement life, by paying installments till the person reaches the age of 60.

An individual aged even above 50 can join the scheme but the person will need to pay installments for 10 consecutive years.

Finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal and Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder, also spoke on the occasion.

PM’s principal secretary M Tofazzel Hossain Miah moderated the function, while senior secretary of the Finance Division Fatima Yasmin delivered the welcome speech.

In the event, a video documentary on the Universal Pension Scheme was screened.