PTAD eyes 2024 for new pension review

... Recovers £26.5m colonial pension fund from UK

The Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) on Thursday said the pension agency will pursue the implementation of five yearly pension review in 2024.

PTAD executive Secretary, Chioma ejikeme, disclosed this while appearing on the Ministerial Media Briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

She disclosed that the 1999 Nigeria Constitution, as amended had provided for the five yearly review, adding that the last review was carried out in 2019.

ejikeme who noted that the review was in line with the current economic realities, added that the agency will pursue “the implementation of the Constitutional provision of five yearly pension increment”

She also disclosed that PITAD has repatriated £26.5 million from Crown Agents Investment Managers Limited of the United Kingdom being the left over of the money used to pay British colonial officers who worked in Nigeria.

This is just as the pension agency said a web based platform “I Am Alive” has also been designed to enable Pensioners with issues who already verified pensioners to easily confirm their aliveness.

According to the agency, pensioners with issues in their pension payments “can easily confirm their aliveness from the comfort of their homes or neighborhood using either a smartphone or a computer system without the stress of having to travel for periodic field verification”

She declared that PITAD has also recovered the sum of N17.85 billion from Boards of Trustees and Underwriters of Treasury Funded Federal Parastatals, as legacy pension assets

She said the the monies were used to defray the inherited arrears of defunct agencies and to pay-off inherited outstanding pension arrears.

The PTAD boss revealed that the directorate has paid over N610 billion from January 2015 to December 2021, in monthly pensions, while noting that that it had achieved 90percent of its mandate.

According to her, “through the unwavering support of President Muhammadu Buhari who has been adjudged by pensioners as the most pensioner-friendly President in Nigeria, and administration which has made Pension an unwritten first-line charge; the able supervision of the honorable Minister for Finance, Budget and National Planning and our regulator Pencom, PTAD’S Management Team has been able to achieve the following: Full implementation of the TSA which has ensured the sanctity of pension funds and enshrined transparency in Pension payments.